About 20 minutes past 5:00pm Pacific Time on Friday, the much-anticipated $50,000 Player’s Championship kicked off at the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP). The high-stakes tournament began with a tribute to the late Chip Reese, the namesake of the trophy given to the winner of the event.
Poker legend Doyle Brunson and tournament director Jack Effel took to the stage, with the former commenting, “Chip was the best player I ever played with. But more than that, he was a class act. Everyone respected and admired him, but I guess life moves on. A poker writer came up to me today and asked me who was the best I ever played. I said Chip. He replied, ‘Who?’” A video featuring highlights of Reese’s career then rolled and Event #2 of the 2010 WSOP was underway.
By the dinner break, 114 players had registered for the $50,000 Player’s Championship, one of three tournaments that will air as part of ESPN’s coverage of the 2010 WSOP. Registration remained open until the dinner break ended. Players not partaking in the high-dollar tournament when it began included Full Tilt Poker pros Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson as well as UB.com pro and reigning National Heads-Up Championship winner Annie Duke. However, the Lederer and Ferguson made their way into the Rio in the final moments of registration. Last year, 95 players turned out to the $50,000 HORSE Championship, which the Player’s Championship replaces.
Late registrants to the event included funny man Robert Williamson III, PokerStars pro Barry Greenstein, PartyPoker front man Tony G, DoylesRoom’s Todd Brunson, Eugene Katchalov, Huck Seed, Amnon Filippi, and World Poker Tour (WPT) co-founder Lyle Berman. One particularly tough table featured the elder Brunson, 2009 WSOP Player of the Year Jeffrey Lisandro, math whiz Bill Chen, and three-time WPT final tablist Hasan Habib.
Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Phil Hellmuth arrived fashionably late to the party. The former was seated alongside fellow high-stakes pro Daniel Negreanu, who, according to coverage found on WSOP.com, briefly explained the rules of Razz to Dwan: “You want low cards. All low cards. Straights, flushes, doesn’t matter.” Hellmuth entered dressed in a green shirt and was seated alongside defending $50,000 HORSE champ David Bach.
Five levels were on the docket for Friday and play will likely wrap up just before 3:00am PT. Not seeing the end of the first day of action in the five-day event is Dan Shak, who went out holding 9h-9d-3c-8c on a flop of 9c-8s-10s during Pot Limit Omaha for trip nines. Online poker pro Dan “djk123” Kelly rolled over Ah-Kc-Qs-Js for the nut straight. Kelly ultimately improved to a flush and Shak quickly parted ways with his $50,000 investment just a few hands later.
Tweeting his progress to the masses was Negreanu, who wrote at the start of Friday’s dinner break, “153,700 after lvl 2. I was down to 95k and won like 60k in one limit hold’em round. 6 hands played and I won all 6. Dinner break now 1 hour.” Former MIT Blackjack Team member Andy Bloch added, “Made a little comeback, at 132,400 at dinner break. Was down below 100k before last 2 games.”
When the $50,000 Player’s Championship makes it down to the final table on Tuesday, only No Limit Hold’em will be played. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest 2010 WSOP coverage.
