Two Tough Tables
With a $1,000 buy-in event like this, it's rare to see more then one or two well known faces at your table. However, there are two tables that stuck out for us with four big names at each table.
The first table is Pavilion 133.Tony Dunst from the WPT is sitting in the two seat, and is rubbing elbows with Melaine Weisner, who has over $500,000 in tournament earnings. Kennii Nguyen has over $500,000 himself, but all of their earnings are trumped by the man in Seat 10. That is none other then Phil Ivey, who is taking his second crack at a bracelet this year after busting the $5,000 event yesterday.
Table #109 doesn't have many slouches either. Jesse Martin may not be well known to the casual fan, but anyone in the poker world knows how tough he is. Martin has over $1 million in live tournament earnings, including a 9th place finish at the WPT Legends of Poker last August. He is in the two seat, and three seats over is Casey "bigdogpckt5s Jarzabek, who is an online legend with over $5 million in online earnings alone. Seated next to him is Blair Hinkle, who has over $1.5 million in live earnings, and even more in online, including an FTOPS Main Event win. Rounding out the table is two time bracelet winner, and former WPT Player of the Year Andy Frankenberger, who beat Ivey heads up for one of his bracelets last year.