The first $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event (#3) of the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) began on Saturday with the first of two starting days. A total of 2,601 players tossed their hats into the ring including some of the game’s best.
By Level 7, which marked the first to play out after the dinner break, 788 players remained in the hunt for a WSOP bracelet. About 1,200 poker hopefuls had pre-registered for Day 1B on Sunday, which means the total tally will likely top 4,000. Last year, a record-setting field of 6,012 players turned out for the $1,000 Stimulus Special, the largest non-Main Event showing in WSOP history.
Down to 2,000 chips entering Level 4, or two-thirds of the starting stack, was Poker News Daily Guest Columnist and Foxwoods pro Bernard Lee. He doubled up with A-K suited against pocket jacks and then picked up aces to scoop another sizable pot and was quickly at 7,000. Lee is filming video interviews with some of the game’s greats for Poker News Daily while in Las Vegas, so check out the front page of the site for his latest work.
PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Venetian Main Event runner-up Sam Stein pushed all-in on a board reading J-J-8-7-9 and showed 7-6 for jacks-up. However, his opponent turned over pocket kings for kings-up and Stein was sent packing. We’re sure that somewhere, ESPN commentator Norman Chad exclaimed, “What was Sam Stein thinking?”
Faring equally as poorly was 2009 WSOP Main Event champion Joe Cada, who committed his chips with K-J of diamonds, but could not draw out on A-9. The board ran out Q-7-5-Q-5 and Cada was sent packing. He was at 4,500 in chips moments before his elimination. Last year, Cada banked $8.5 million, or 8,500 times the buy-in of Event #3, for besting Darvin Moon in poker’s most prestigious tournament.
Online poker pro Shannon Shorr pushed all-in with the board reading Q-10-4-5-8, but ran into pocket queens for top set and mucked, ending his bracelet run in the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event. Carrying the flag for the internet community as Day 1A dragged on were Victory Poker pro Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little, Owen “ocrowe” Crowe, and RPM Poker sponsored pro Aditya “Intervention” Agarwal, among others. Agarwal was seated at a talented table featuring Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet, Ben “Benba” Lamb, and UB.com pro Joe Sebok.
As of 9:45pm PT on Saturday night, several notable chip stacks in the Rio Pavilion included:
Joe Sebok – 27,000
Vanessa Rousso – 23,000
Amarillo Slim – 21,000
Chris Bjorin – 20,000
Bryan “badbeatninja” Devonshire – 17,500
Billy Baxter – 10,500
Dan Shak – 8,000
Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little – 7,500
Bernard Lee – 3,500
Day 1B will play out on Sunday and the survivors of each of the two starting days will assemble on Monday for Day 2. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest 2010 WSOP coverage.
