On Tuesday night at 9:00pm ET, coverage of Days 1C and 1D of the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event aired on cable station ESPN. The first hour of coverage was devoted to Day 1C and featured reigning Main Event champ Joe Cada and 11-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth.
Eight former Main Event champs took to the felts for Day 1C and Cada was seated at the feature table. ESPN aired several hands in which Cada flopped sets, perhaps playing on his “lucksack” image from 2009. Meanwhile, back-to-back Main Event winner Johnny Chan scooped a massive pot in a set-over-set situation to move to 61,000 in chips. Chan is part of the $50,000 buy-in Full Tilt Doubles Poker Championship, which is airing on Saturday nights on GSN.
Elsewhere, fellow Main Event winner Scotty Nguyen was seen living it up on Day 1C, while a 3bet from PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu was good enough to take down a pot. Then, Hellmuth was seen entering the fray dressed as an MMA fighter and took a seat at Table 2. ESPN commentator Norman Chad was not impressed by Hellmuth’s entrance, which featured several hundred spectators.
UB.com pros Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin and Billy “Patrolman35” Kopp found camera time, as did Darvin Moon, who was sweating Dennis Phillips. High-stakes cash game pros Patrik Antonius and Tom “durrrr” Dwan were also seen competing for the top prize of nearly $9 million. The latter donned a button that displayed fellow pro Peter Jetten hugging a koala and hit quads with pocket fives. Dwan played in 52 events during the 2010 WSOP in an attempt to collect on a variety of high-dollar bracelet bets.
Cada scooped a 39,000-chip pot after flopping a boat against Nils Bardsley’s nut flush. Then, in a lively Jack Link’s Beef Jerky Wild Card Hand, in which the hole cards of one player at the table are concealed, online poker pro James “croll103” Carroll spiked the nut flush against Hellmuth, who spouted off, “Worst player at the fucking table.”
At an outer table, Chau Giang doubled up courtesy of Victory Poker front man Antonio Esfandiari. However, Esfandiari had the last laugh, making a full house on the river to send Giang packing. Despite his heralded success in high-stakes cash games, Giang has cashed in just one WSOP Main Event in the last 14 years.
Back at the feature table, Cada rivered a boat against Tommy Miller’s king-high diamond flush to rake in another 21,125 chips. Cada then knocked out Bardsley with pocket queens against A-J to shoot up to 61,000 in chips. Next door, Hellmuth hit the rails in a three-way pot with pocket jacks against A-K and pocket queens when an opponent hit a flush on the river. Hellmuth was less-than-gracious in his exit. Also finding the rails was Dwan, who promptly threw his button onto his chair and left the Amazon Room.
The second one-hour episode featured coverage of Day 1D. After railing one day prior, Moon took center stage this time around and played relatively tight poker. He tangled with Miguel Gonzalez in pot after pot, dropping the first one shown. Then, viewers railed eight-time bracelet winner Phil Ivey. Also in the field were fellow 2009 November Niners Jeff Shulman, Antoine Saout, and Eric Buchman.
NFL rushing leader Emmitt Smith gave the “Shuffle up and ‘play’” command, but was later sidelined. Back at the feature table, Moon checked the nuts on the river in order to see what his opponent had, but due to an anti-collusion rule, was given a one-hand penalty. Moon claimed he didn’t know about the rule and added, “I learn something new every day.”
Actors Hank Azaria (“The Simpsons”) and Jason Alexander (“Seinfeld”) were shown in the Day 1D field, as was DoylesRoom namesake Doyle Brunson, who took a seat at Table 2. Elsewhere, Jason Mercier hit a boat on the river to bust an opponent holding a straight and Bob Lang, a Vice President of In-N-Out Burger, eliminated 2009 WSOP Player of the Year Jeffrey Lisandro. Lang flopped a set with pocket queens to draw out on Lisandro’s aces.
2010 WSOP Player of the Year contender Frank Kassela tangled with Penn Jillette’s wife Emily, while Pascal LeFrancois sent 2005 Main Event winner Joe Hachem to the rail. At the feature table, Moon led out for 2,500 with A-9 on a flop of 10-8-5. Gonzalez check-raised to 7,550 with pocket kings and Moon made it 17,000. Gonzalez came all-in over-the-top for just 4,300 more and Moon called despite knowing he was dominated. Last year’s runner-up caught lightning in a bottle on the river when an ace hit to send Gonzalez packing.
The Day 2s of the Main Event will begin next Tuesday at 9:00pm ET on ESPN. If you missed this week’s episodes, they will repeat throughout the week on ESPN’s family of stations.
