The latest stop on the World Poker Tour schedule, at Maryland Live! in Hanover, is a recent addition to the roster of events. In a short time, however, the action at the East Coast casino has brought out a throng of players, which was proven by the Day 1A outpouring of players for the Main Event.
The $3500 buy-in event featured a format that has become de rigueur on the WPT circuit. If a player was knocked out on Day 1A, they had the option of using one re-entry to get back in the game. Day 1B, set to begin on Sunday, features the same option available to all players (including the ones who played on Day 1A) and, should a player have two stacks from both Day Ones, the larger stack would move over. Finally, there would be one more entry available to players – before the start of Day 2 play on Monday – meaning that players could be in for as many as five entries ($17,500) if the fortunes ran against them during the two Day Ones.
The players who massed for the “shuffle up and deal” on Saturday afternoon weren’t thinking about needing another buy-in. 136 players were in their seats for the call to action, with such notable pros as WPT champion Darren Elias, Aaron Massey, Cate Hall and Shannon Shorr occupying real estate on the felt around Maryland Live! After the first level of the day was out of the way, the last big winner on the WPT, Borgata Poker Open champion Jesse Sylvia, joined the field along with Christian Harder.
By the time the dinner break arrived for the players, 221 entries had been received with 186 of the players still in the tournament. Those numbers indicate that there could be a rather large turnout for this event as, if tournament norms hold, the Day 1B field is usually two times as large as the Day 1A entries. For the inaugural event last year, 337 individual players came to the baize for action (defending champion Aaron Mermelstein is expected back to defend his title on Sunday). In all likelihood, the multiple re-entries will ensure that the prize pool will be larger than last year’s bounty.
The action around Maryland Live! wasn’t kind to some of the people in the tournament. Harder would pop two buy-ins but, according to his Twitter feed, will come back on Sunday to fire again. Jake Schwartz and Shorr also were in for two buy-ins on Saturday, with Schwartz departing on his second run in a particularly painful fashion. On a Q-6-6- flop and turn, Schwartz was all-in and watching two opponents battle to see who would go against him. A river ten saw one of the two opponents fold to a river bet, at which point the aggressor showed pocket tens for the rivered set. Schwartz could only sigh and show a Queen (for at least a flopped two pair) as he packed his bags for the hotel (and taking another shot on Sunday).
The news wasn’t all bad for the players. 97 survived the Day 1A minefields and two, Andy Spears and Daniel Burke, actually cracked the 200K mark in chips. In looking at the Top Ten, poker fans may recognize a “blast from the past” that has joined the Maryland Live! Main Event in his backyard:
Andy Spears, 211,500 Daniel Burke, 203,600 Franco Bonacci, 181,300 Anthony Zinno, 166,500 Ethan Foxman, 164,700 Ardit Kurshumi, 161,500 Alex Foxen, 154,000 Ian Davis, 151,800 Mike Del Vecchio, 144,100 Steve Dannenmann, 142,000
For those who didn’t pick out the name, Dannenmann was the runner up to 2005 World Series of Poker Championship Event winner Joe Hachem. Dannenmann, who plays sparingly nowadays but still brings a great deal of joy to the tables (much as he did in 2005 when battling Hachem), is looking to add to his career stats with the WPT coming to his home casino. Of the slightly more than $4.8 million that Dannenmann has won in his career, $4.3 million of it was won in that 2005 WSOP tournament.
Day 1B will probably not feature anyone from the Day 1A Top Ten in the fray, but it will provide those that aren’t happy with their stacks – or those that haven’t gotten into the tournament yet – another opportunity to reach for the stars. It should also toss minimum of another 200 entries into the kitty, guaranteeing that the 2016 WPT Maryland Live! Main Event is going to be a big one.