Last year, 6,012 players turned out for the $1,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Stimulus Special held during the World Series of Poker (WSOP). This year, the first of six open $1,000 events (#3) attracted 2,601 players on Day 1A and 1,742 on Day 1B for a total field of 4,343.
Day 1B was not without some controversy. A total of 555 players returned after the dinner break and, when all is said and done, the top 441 overall will finish in the money. Given that 276 players survived Day 1A, this means that, if the field were to shrink below 165 players on Day 1B, the remaining players would actually be in the money. Coverage found on WSOP.com following the dinner break explained, “While the schedule says we’ll be playing four more one-hour levels tonight, it sounds like by no means will they let the number of remaining players here in our corner of the Pavilion dwindle below that 165-player mark.”
The 2010 WSOP has not gone well for Jason Mercier thus far. His latest attempt at a bracelet came on Day 1B of Event #3 and the decorated pro met his demise when he could not draw out on A-7 with K-Q. Mercier won a bracelet last year in a $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha tournament for $237,000 and took fourth in the WSOP Europe Main Event for £267,000.
Also departing on Sunday was 2009 WSOP Main Event November Niner Jeff Shulman, who shoved with K-Q and received calls from Mercier, who had A-J, and another player who held A-K. Mercier and the other opponent chopped the pot in the end and Shulman was sent packing. Shulman took fifth in last year’s $10,000 buy-in feature tournament for $1.9 million and received coaching from the legendary Phil Hellmuth.
Speaking of Hellmuth, he was shown the door early in the day after running pocket nines into pocket kings. The board fell 8-3-4-4-K and Hellmuth departed. The UB.com pro is the WSOP’s all-time leader in bracelets won with 11. As of 9:30pm PT on Sunday, players remaining in Day 1B of the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament included:
Justin Conway – 29,000
Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar – 18,000
Mark Seif – 17,000
Terrence “Unassigned” Chan – 16,000
Georgios Kapalas – 14,200
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin – 13,000
Isaac “westmenloAA” Baron – 10,500
Cory Dowd – 9,000
Jason “JCarver” Somerville – 9,000
Nikolay Evdakov – 8,700
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest 2010 WSOP coverage.
