Ke$ha is blasting inside of the Penn and Teller Theater here at the Rio in Las Vegas and we’re just an hour and a half away from the start of heads-up play in the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event. Poker News Daily rolled up to the off-Strip hotel around 5:30pm local time and spotted PokerStars pro Dennis Phillips in the hallway wearing his signature red baseball cap.
First on the docket are the induction ceremonies for the 2010 Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2010. The Poker Hall of Fame podium is sitting on the right side of the stage and has two trophies on top of it. It’s not known who will introduce Dan Harrington and Erik Seidel to the Hall, although Poker News Daily has learned that the introductions do not have to be made by Hall of Fame members. Last year, PartyPoker front man Mike Sexton was the Hall’s lone inductee.
Given that Jonathan Duhamel will bring a 6:1 chip lead into heads-up play, one wonders what range the Canadian would call with if the short stacked John Racener pushed all-in on the first few hands. Poker News Daily’s own Sean Gibson speculated, “Duhamel is calling with any pocket pair, any ace, Broadway hands, suited connectors, and suited one-gappers. His range is wide and, as long as he has live cards, he’s going to be in good shape. In most of those situations, it’s going to be about a coin flip.”
What can we expect come an hour from now? Gibson forecasted, “Given Racener’s conservative approach, Duhamel has a ton of fold equity and realizes that Racener is going to get it in with a solid hand. I fully expect Duhamel to lead on him. Racener won’t put in his money unless he feels like he’s a favorite in the hand.”
We spotted the crew from ESPN at In N Out Burger earlier today off I-15 at Tropicana, but we have yet to see them here at the Rio. Meanwhile, the chip leader is on stage stretching his arms and legs and jumping up and down to get his blood flowing. We have yet to see any shadow boxing, which allegedly is part of his warm-ups. On media row, a power outage has us clamoring to head to the upper orchestra row of seats.
The line for spectators stretches all the way down to the Pavilion Room in the Rio Convention Center. Fans will be allowed in at 7:30pm PT.
