World Series of Poker Main Event Kicks Off

The 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event got underway Friday afternoon as 1,116 players took to the felts on the first of four Day Ones. The $10,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament World Championship attracted a number of celebrities on Day 1a, which turned out to be the main story as a couple of them finished the day among the chip leaders.

Actors Brad Garrett and Jason Alexander, former Major League Baseball player Orel Hershiser, cricket star Shane Warne, and musician and rapper Nelly were just some of the stars seated among the pros and amateurs taking a shot at the biggest tournament of 2009. Alexander and Warne each finished in the top 35 of the 821 players that survived, while Garrett ended the day above the starting stack. Nelly and Hershiser were unable to advance to Day 2. Nelly has been a familiar face on the circuit this year, participating in several WSOP Events as well as the WPT Invitational and the EPT Grand Final at Monte Carlo. Hershiser is a friend of Team PokerStars and as is his custom he gave a signed baseball to the player that knocked him out of the tournament.

Of course, numerous poker pros took their seats on Day 1a as well. Former world champions who played were Berry Johnston, Johnny Chan and Jerry Yang. Johnston and Chan advanced to Day 2 but Yang will not return. He lost most of his stack early in the afternoon after running pocket kings into pocket aces and was eliminated later on. Other prominent pros in the field were Greg “FBT” Mueller, Vitaly Lunkin, Andy Black, Roland De Wolfe, and Full Tilt Pros Allen Cunningham and Eli Elezra, who were seated together at the ESPN featured table.

For the first time ever at the WSOP Main Event, players were given 30,000 in chips to begin play. The Main Event from 1971 through 2005 gave players 10,000 in starting chips and from 2006 through 2008 players started with 20,000.

Even with the bigger stack it didn’t take long to lose the first player. Just 10 minutes in Rafael Zimmerman, from Oneonta, NY was sent to the rail. Other early exits included John Phan, Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers, Chris Moorman, and Pieter de Korver. Freddy Deeb, Mark Vos, Davidi Kitai, Matt Glantz, Men “The Master” Nguyen, Isaac Haxton and Cunningham were eliminated after the dinner break.

The chip leader at the end of Day 1a was Eric Cloutier, from Mont-Laurier, Quebec (Canada). Cloutier is a former professional hockey player who played briefly for the NHL’s Boston Bruins. Cloutier has been playing poker on the tournament circuit for about five years and has more than $160,000 in live tournament winnings. He will take 150,750 into Day 2.

Here’s a look at chip counts of some notables that survived Day 1a:

Jason Alexander – 89,575
Shane Warne – 87,625
Lex “RasZi” Veldhuis – 84,000
Tom Schneider – 79,600
Andy Black – 56,475
Phil Laak – 53,025
Tony G – 42,325
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi – 41,375
Mike Sexton – 41,000
Gus Hansen – 38,075
Brad Garrett – 36,625
Dewey Tomko – 34,275
Roland De Wolfe – 31,000
Sam Farha – 30,425

Day 1b will kick off at around Noon Vegas time on Saturday. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for updates throughout the 2009 WSOP Main Event.