The first day of the inaugural World Series of Poker Asia/Pacific (WSOP APAC) Championship Event is in the books and, while it might be a smallish field for one of the prized WSOP bracelets up for grabs in 2013, it doesn’t lack for notable names atop the leaderboard.
The players gathered in the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia, looking to be a part of history in what has been a memorable first foray by the WSOP “Down Under.” With the players starting off with 30K in chips in the tournament, you might think that some would like to get some value out of their $10,000 entry fee. On the very first hand, however, there was an all-in and a call, which saw pocket eights hit a set on the flop to take down an A-K that had only flopped top pair.
Fortunately, the rest of the players in the event weren’t as break-neck as those two first hand dancers. That could be because pretty much every table had a formidable assortment of professionals on it, ready for the marathon that this tournament will be. On one table alone, Australia’s James Obst, Antonio Esfandiari and Erik Seidel were sitting beside each other, while other tables held such names as David Vamplew, Jeffrey Lisandro, Joseph Cheong, Jean-Robert Bellande, Jackie Glazier, Aussie cricketer Shane Warne, Antoine Saout, Rupert Elder, Sam Trickett and Barry Greenstein. With such strong players put together (and with a familiarity of each other’s games), the action was sedate through the early going.
Just prior to the first break, the player who would make the biggest noise through the day made his first significant move. In early position, Daniel Negreanu raised the pot and egged on his tablemates to join him in the hand. One player did, three-betting Negreanu to 850 which Negreanu called to see a 9-7-9 flop. After checking his option, Negreanu jumped on his opponent’s 1100 chip bet and made the action 3100, which didn’t scare his calling opponent.
On the King turn, Negreanu kept up an unusual aggression for him, betting out 5600 (called by his foe) and fired again for 12K on the river eight. His opponent made the call and Negreanu stunned him with pocket sevens for the flopped boat that he rode all the way to the river. After the hand, Negreanu was up to 51,000 and he wouldn’t stop there.
After the second break of the day, Negreanu began to see some friends join him on the climb up the leaderboard. Phil Ivey, Oliver Speidel, and Trickett were all on the march, while WSOP bracelet winner Andrew Hinrichsen saw his K♦ 10♦ crushed by a pocket pair of Kings (after a King flopped) to fall to the bottom of the ladder.
Coming to the final hands of the evening, Ivey and Joel Feldman were looking like they would close the night out battling for the chip lead, but Negreanu would have other ideas. He clipped Jim Collopy’s straight with a rivered full house to double up, then would use those chips to storm by both Ivey and Feldman. By the end of the night’s play, Negreanu was in the rarified air of being the Day One chip leader at the WSOP APAC Championship Event:
1. Daniel Negreanu, 136,050
2. Joel Feldman, 132,875
3. Ben Wilinofsky, 127,875
4. Tobin Ryall, 127,250
5. Victor Teng, 124,825
6. Phil Ivey, 123,300
7. Benny Spindler, 119,050
8. Chan Leong, 114,950
9. Gautam Dhingra, 114,050
10. David Vamplew, 112,475
Other notable names hovering above the average stack include Mike “SirWatts” Watson (108,525), Trickett (91,350), Oliver Gill (90,025) and Brandon Cantu (76,200).
There are 262 players that made it through the first day of carnage at the WSOP APAC Championship Event, but the final numbers (total players and prize pool) have yet to be firmly determined. With late registration going on until 8PM (Australia time) on Friday night, there is a chance that the field could crack the 300 player mark. Although the field might be smallish, the quality is there for a major poker tournament as the tournament moves on into Day Two action in just a few hours.
