Day a of Event #28, the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament, is complete and it was a fantastic day of poker. By the time the registration desk closed there were 2,115 players who had bought into this event making it one of the best-attended tournaments of the 2013 World Series of Poker so far.
Of those 2,115 entrants, only 233 managed to navigate their way through to Sunday’s Day 2. One man who is most definitely through to Day 2 is our overnight chip leader, Jason Duval.
Duval’s final task of the night was to try to fit 149,700 chips into a single, plastic bag; a welcomed problem I am sure he will agree. Although we did not see many hands involving Duval during Day 1, each time we checked on his progress he seemed to have added more chips to his stack. If he carries on doing that on Day 2 and beyond, he is going to be in great shape to ship a coveted WSOP bracelet.
Hot on the heels of Duval is a talented group of players who each turned their 4,500 starting stacks into much more meaningful amounts. Mantas Visockis finished second in chips with 135,600 while Josh Fussner (127,800), Raj Vohra (125,800), Evan Marshall (117,500) and Tobias Peters (115,000) each had a great session.
The British and Irish players chose this event to shine and now have a handful of names at the top of our leader board. Craig McCorkell, winner of a WSOP bracelet in 2012, is the best place of them with 117,800 chips, closely followed by Christopher Brammer (100,500), Ash Mason (96,600), Rupert Elder (93,500) and former November Nine member Eoghan O’Dea (87,700).
Day 2 commences at 13:00 on Sunday and should see the money bubble burst quite early on in proceedings. There are 233 players remaining and 216 of them will be paid, so make sure you tune into PokerNews.com on Sunday to discover which unfortunate soul bursts the bubble and who will be adding a WSOP cash to their poker resume.
The player under the gun shipped all in for 5,800, and Eric Baldwin moved all in over the top for 26,700. The next player folded, and the player in the cutoff measured out the calling chips, which represented almost all of his stack, before sliding them in. Everyone else folded.
Under the gun:
Baldwin:
Cutoff:
The flop was beautiful for Baldwin: . The other players were drawing nearly dead, and the turn and river finished them off.
James Woods is up to 56,000 chips after having quads paid off by Yann Dion.
Canadian pro Dion opened to 1,600 and found two callers. The first was Woods on the button and the second was the player in the big blind. The first three community cards fell and it was checked around to Woods. While still stacking the chips he won from flopping the nut flush, Woods bet 5,000 and only Dion called.
The turn was a second three, the and when Dion checked, Woods checked behind. The completed the board and Dion checked again. Woods went through all of the motions before settling on a 5,000 bet. Dion asked how many chips Woods had before going silent and trying to figure out what Woods held. Eventually, Dion called but instantly mucked when he saw the in the hand of Woods.
We found Phil Collins with a raise to 2,700 in front of him, likely from reraising a player who had acted in front of him. The player to his left, on the button, had moved all in and he covered Collins. Collins went into the tank for a couple of minutes, and he finally called off his last 9,000.
Collins:
Button:
Collins was in bad shape, and the flop didn't bring much hope. He managed to spike the on the turn, however, and the river sealed his double up.
Meanwhile, Randy Lew was tanking with a tough decision of his own at a nearby table. Lew was also looking at an all-in bet from an opponent who covered him, this time with all the cards out. The board read , and Lew agonized over the decision. He laughed softly and shook his head, finally folding.
Our intrepid reporter Matt Whitefield has just handed us a slip of paper informing us that Justin Bonomo has busted out.
There was around 11,000 already in the pot on a board, and a player bet 10,000. Bonomo called off his remaining 6,200 and turned over . Unfortunately for Bonomo, his opponent held , which left Bonomo drawing dead. The meaningless was the river card and Bonomo headed for the rail.
We found Jennifer Tilly all in for around 4,500 with the cutoff all in behind her. Both players had shoved over a raise to 4,800 from the big blind, who was now tanking against the cutoff's shove. Finally, he folded.
Tilly:
Cutoff:
"You fold an ace?" Tilly asked the big blind.
"Ace-king," he replied.
"Well, I need hearts then," she said.
Unfortunately for her, the flop came an all-black , and the turn and river did nothing for her.
On the Friday edition of the PokerNews Podcast, the crew breaks down the latest news from the World Series of Poker, including David Diaz being banned from Caesars properties, Martin Finger winning his first gold bracelet, Matthew Ashton approaching another final table, and an update from the Ivey and the Misfits fantasy team. They then talk with Jay Rosenkrantz about the premiere of Bet Raise Fold: The Story of Online Poker.
According to Bernard Lee, Annette Obrestad lost the majority of her chips when she ran queens into an opponent's aces. She then lost the remainder on a queen-high flop with three diamonds when she had against an opponent with .
Elsewhere, Kathy Liebert got all in with on a flop. Unfortunately for her, her opponent held pocket sevens for top set, and it held.
"He's been on TV about a hundred times," a player at Table 45 said, pointing to the man in seat five.
Indeed, the man in question was 2001 main event winner Carlos Mortensen, who chuckled and nodded as someone confirmed his identity. Mortensen, who has two bracelets, is attempting to add to a career total of more than $10 million in career tournament cashes.
Welcome to PokerNews' coverage of Event #28: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em. We're here in the Brasilia Room at the Rio, and action is set to begin here shortly, as abour half of the players have taken their seats. Play will be split between the Brasilia and the Pavilion today.
These $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em events always draw large fields filled with both well-known pros and amateurs looking to make their names and live their dreams, so we expect roughly 2,000 runners by the time registration ends at the start of Level 5. Already, more than 1,000 players have registered, and undoubtedly, many more will continue to filter in for the next few hours.
Ten levels are scheduled to be played today, and and we'll be sure to bring you all the pertinent updates.
. The other players were drawing nearly dead, and the 
turn and 
river finished them off.
and it was checked around to Woods. While still stacking the chips he won from flopping the nut flush, Woods bet 5,000 and only Dion called.
and when Dion checked, Woods checked behind. The 
completed the board and Dion checked again. Woods went through all of the motions before settling on a 5,000 bet. Dion asked how many chips Woods had before going silent and trying to figure out what Woods held. Eventually, Dion called but instantly mucked when he saw the 
in the hand of Woods.
flop didn't bring much hope. He managed to spike the 
river sealed his double up.
, and Lew agonized over the decision. He laughed softly and shook his head, finally folding.
board, and a player bet 10,000. Bonomo called off his remaining 6,200 and turned over 
. Unfortunately for Bonomo, his opponent held 
, which left Bonomo drawing dead. The meaningless 
was the river card and Bonomo headed for the rail.
turn and 
![[user101598]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
against an opponent with 
flop. Unfortunately for her, her opponent held pocket sevens for top set, and it held.
