Fresh off a final table appearance in the PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Mohegan Sun High Roller Bounty Shootout, Shawn Buchanan leads the field of the $25,000 buy-in World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship after Day 1.
Buchanan took fifth in the $25,000 NAPT High Roller event at Mohegan Sun and collected $80,000. A total of 161 players registered on Day 1 of the Bellagio tournament on Sunday, less than half of the 338-player field that turned out last year. Registration will remain open through 5:00pm PT on Monday during Day 2 and WPT officials are expecting a final field of about 200. When the smoke cleared on Sunday, 138 entrants remained and the tournament will crown a champion on Saturday.
Buchanan sent former WPT Bellagio Cup champion Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul to the rails late in the day. Saul was in prime position to double up holding pocket kings against Buchanan’s pocket queens, but a queen on the flop sealed his fate. The hand swelled Buchanan’s chip stack to 385,000 and he ended the day with 388,600, good for the largest stack in the room. Buchanan will head to Table 55 on Monday, where his competition will include 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event November Nine member Kevin Schaffel, Sam Stein, Joe Beevers, and Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka. Talk about a tough table draw.
Holding down fourth place on the WPT Championship leaderboard after Day 1 is last year’s champion, Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko. His win in 2009 was worth $2.1 million and he’s well on his way to making waves again in 2010. Timoshenko told WPT officials about a major hand during play on Sunday: “The last hand before break, this guy who was playing very loose-aggressive raised and I called with sevens. The flop came K-7-J rainbow, so I flopped a set of sevens. He bet 1,700 and I raised to 5,200. He thought for a bit and raised me to 14,200. I thought and I thought and I called.” The board filled out 6-4 and Timoshenko scooped a massive pot.
Early on, WSOP bracelet winner Brian Lemke eliminated two players in a set-over-set situation. On a board of Q-J-3-K, Vivek “Psyduck” Rajkumar was all-in with a set of queens and another player committed his stack with Q-J for two pair. Lemke held pocket kings for a turned set and had each of his opponents covered. Both players were drawing dead to the river and Lemke’s stack mushroomed to 320,000. He ended the day at 298,825, the second largest stack overall. Lemke will captain Table 58 on Monday, where the likes of Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo, Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin, Gavin Smith, and WSOP Circuit legend Dwyte Pilgrim will join him.
Here are the top 10 chip stacks after one day of play in the WPT Championship:
1. Shawn Buchanan – 388,600
2. Brian Lemke – 298,825
3. David Benyamine – 291,275
4. Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko – 277,375
5. Soheil Shamseddin – 244,000
6. Chris Moore – 243,700
7. Cody “thugmoneymkr” Slaubaugh – 231,300
8. Phil Ivey – 230,250
9. Todd Terry – 213,825
10. Christian “charder30” Harder – 211,675
Other notable names that sit in the top 50 after Day 1 include:
11. Prahlad Friedman – 204,000
13. Tommy Vedes – 199,900
16. Beth Shak – 189,725
17. Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger – 183,350
18. Eric “EFro” Froehlich – 182,300
24. Martin de Knijff – 166,425
32. Amit “amak316” Makhija – 158,150
35. Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy – 149,400
38. Alex “AJKHoosier1” Kamberis – 143,025
40. Robert Mizrachi – 142,300
41. David Chiu – 140,950
42. Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo – 139,000
43. Kevin Schaffel – 137,875
47. Isaac Haxton – 125,125
Timoshenko, de Knijff, and Chiu are former WPT Championship winners. The only other winner of the $25,000 buy-in tournament left in the field is Carlos Mortensen, the WPT’s all-time money leader. Mortensen owns the 55th largest stack at 117,300.
When play resumes at Noon PT, the action will be in Level 6, where the blinds will be 400-800 with an ante of 100. The final payouts have not been announced since registration is still open. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest WPT Championship coverage.
