Internet guns go down early in $40,000 NL Hold’em Event #2

WSOP 2009 by pokerguru on May 29, 2009

The 40th Annual No-Limit Holdem Event at the WSOP started the event off in grand fashion. This event is packed with some of the biggest names in poker, but a lot of the new comers and internet superstars did not fair very well in the early going.

The most notable of the early departures was Dario Minieri. While he has proven he has moxy in the WSOP, his claim to fame came via some impressive wins on PokerStars. He recently made an appearance in High Stakes Poker and got felted during the last installment of the season. His bad luck continued as he was chased fairly on in the action.

Another huge internet name that has already been sent to the rail is Steve “gboro780” Gross. While he has an incredible reputation as an online tournament player, his venture to high stakes live action was not so successful. He had the unfortunate luck of drawing an A9 to Doyle Brunson’s AQ and put Texas Dolly up over $200,000 in chips.

The kickoff event of the tournament is going to add almost $2,000,000 to someone’ bank account and you would have to think it is likely to be a big name player. While there are some amateurs in the field, this one is loaded with land mines called, Hellmuth, Chan, Brunson, etc…

With the size of the field, this tournament will be reminiscent of some of the older tournaments that the pros used to dominate. A lot of the luck factor will be taken out and skill should come out on top. With this being the second largest buy in of the tournament and more than likely being considered very prestigious due to its title and uniqueness (this is supposed to be a onetime anniversary event), you would have to think that every pro will be on their A game the entire time.

Another huge factor is that this is the first event any of these pros are playing in. Playing against Brunson on Day 1 of the entire event is going to be much different than facing him on Day three of the actual Main Event. My money is on the big boys for this one.

Stay tuned for more updates. We will post them as they come in.