For anyone who is waiting to see the main event on TV when ESPN begins its coverage later this month, read no further. The rest of you who want to keep updated can follow along.
It is the end of Day 7 for all of the 27 players remaining and the 11th total day for the tournament. The biggest news has to be the presence of Phil Ivey who is 4th in at the end of the day. He has put his large chip stack to work by punishing the rest of the field. It will be his first cash in the Main Event since being bounced on a bad beat by Chris Moneymaker in 2003, a hand that was immortalized as one of the best hands of the year. He has to be the odds on favorite to win the title as he is one of only a few professionals remaining. He is within firing distance of the chip leader, Darvin Moon, who has over 20 million in chips. Ivey sits with just over 11 million.
Another notable pro who is remaining in the tournament is Antonio Esfandiari. With a little over 4 million in chips is on the short end of the field. Esfandiari has seen little success in the WSOP and has a small fan base thanks to other televised poker events such as High Stakes Poker and the WPT. He has a very good skill set and can be dangerous at any point in a tournament so he is one to watch out for, but “The Magician” needs to have a few tricks up his sleeve to take down this bracelet.
After today, the ”November Nine” will be set, so look for updates on the tournament along with player profiles right here.
We all knew this was going to be a marathon and that the biggest names in poker were going to have a target on their heads. The survivors from Day 1a and Day 1b sat down at the tables yesterday and some of the names that had managed to build up formidable stacks were shown the rail by the end of the day. All in all, 1,476 player started the day and only 630 of them still had chips when the final hand was dealt.
Some of the players that failed to make it through the day were Mike Matusow, Jennifer Tilley, Phil Laak, Gus Hansen, Eli Elezra, Todd Brunson, Gavin Smith, Amarillo Slim and Tony G. While they will be watching from the side lines, Chris Ferguson, Andy Black, Greg Mueller, Mike Sexton and Thor Hansen have all managed to get through to the next session.
Day 2b should be interesting as the field for this session will be much larger. A lot of players chose to play in the 2 late Day 1’s and we will see about 3,500 players start the day off before they combine fields to move forward. It was also interesting that a lot of the professionals chose to start off on the later days as they knew they would also be packed with a lot of the amateurs that were getting satellite tickets into the Main Event.
We have talked many times about how difficult it is for the pros to navigate through large fields because of the fact that everyone wants to be the person that can say, “I took out (fill in name of pro here).” Not only that, but by playing in one of the first two sessions, you would get a significant more amount of rest in compared to the later days when the fields get combined. Make no mistake about it, these players will wear down with the grind that they are faced with.
We are a long way from the bubble as the top 648 players get paid. You can expect that stage not be reached until Friday at the earliest. When that time approached, play will come to grinding halt as everyone can smell the money and do not want to be the person that goes out on the bubble in the largest stage that poker sees every year.
Strap in and get ready for another long session of poker on Wednesday. They will hopefully get this field down to under 1,000 players, leaving less than 2,000 overall to go into Day 3. That is when the real fun begins as we will have all of the players in the same room for the first time since the tournament has started.
While he wasn’t the first one out of the tournament, he was pretty close. There is no arguing the fact that he got a couple of really bad beats, but that is not going to make it any easier as he sits and watches the next 2 weeks pass by from the sidelines. It took less than an hour for one of the bigger names in poker to head to the rail.
The first has just bad luck. Phan was holding pocket Q’s when his opponent was sitting on 78c. The flop came out 10-4-5. The turn card was a 6h and when Phan made a 1,500 bet after a check, his opponent came right back over the top to make it 4,000. The river card was gave Phan a set and when his opponent led out for 5,100 he realized he was in trouble. Most players would have dumped their stack right then and there, but he merely made the call and managed to stay alive.
Just a few hands later, Phan looked down at AA and made it 300 to see the flop. He was called down by one player and the board hit 879. Phan led out and the player in late position made a raise that would have Phan all in were he to call. He thought about after the last straight popped on him, but then made the call and gave a quick lecture. The cards were turned and he was in the lead with AA to K9. The turn was a 10 and left his opponent looking for a 9 or a K to win and a J or 7 for the split. The miracle card came on the river in the form of another 10 and Phan was out about 45 minutes into the tournament.
So far, we are seeing some decent action and a little bit of drama. One player was taking a bit long to play his hands and it started to get to the table. One player in particular was very upset about it and it got a bit ugly there for a while. The floor came in to handle the situation and it now seems as though it is under control. You can count on a lot more of this with so many people looking at this as their shot at poker glory.
Dragan Galic caught a nice run of cards early and is already up to 120,000 in chips. There are several other big names that have had a nice run so far and are looking to get into day two in a commanding position. It is a little too early to get excited though and you won’t really be able to see how the tourney is flowing until the middle of the week.
The amount of players that are registered has to be a bit of surprise. They were touting this as the largest field ever and with the turnouts so huge during the other tournaments, there was definitely an expectation that every day in the Main Event would be close to if not sold out each day. Day One featured 1116 entrants and that is well below the total expected. Hopefully the next couple of sessions will pick up in numbers.
While he wasn’t the first one out of the tournament, he was pretty close. There is no arguing the fact that he got a couple of really bad beats, but that is not going to make it any easier as he sits and watches the next 2 weeks pass by from the sidelines. It took less than an hour for one of the bigger names in 
