On a recent scouting party sent to search the Brasilia Room for chip leaders, we came across the lovely Liv Boeree trying her best to stack a truly enormous pile of chips.
"Just a million," one of her tablemates announced. "Put her at a million even."
Although Boeree is a tad shy of that mark, her stack of 70,500 puts her in the chip lead by a wide margin as Day 1A comes to a close.
According to an extremely helpful player at the table who regaled us with the exact action on the hand, Boeree opened for 900 from early position, a player in the big blind three-bet to 1,800, and the small blind flatted. With the action back on her, Boeree made it 5,000 to play, the small blind called the reraise, and the big blind then shipped his stack into the middle.
Boeree made the quick call, as did the small blind player, and the three were all in for a massive pot.
Showdown:
Boeree:
Small Blind:
Big Blind:
In the mother of all coolers, each of the three players woke up with a premium pocket pair, but Boeree's aces put her in command of the hand, when the flop came ace-high, her unfortunate opponents were showered in short order.
Today's Day 1A of the Little One for One Drop is being played straight through, with 20-minute breaks punctuating the eight scheduled levels of play, which means the customary Day 1 dinner break of 90 minutes has been removed from the structure sheet.
Unfortunately, poker players are creatures of habit, and several runners have recently returned from what they believed to be a leisurely meal, only to find their chip stacks have been ravaged by the unending orbit of blinds and antes.
One unfortunate soul retook his seat to find just 150 chips left at his disposal, and the Frenchman remained utterly mystified despite the tournament staff's attempts to explain the situation.
"Uhh... 'ze dinner," the player said in broken English. "One hour and thirty, no?"
After being told that the announcement was made several times (in English of course), the player tried his best to turn the "chip and a chair" maxim into reality, but his failed to connect with the board and he hit the rail with a full belly, but an empty feeling in the pit of his stomach.
Antonio Esfandiari opened to 750 from the button and the big blind shipped his stack of 15,000 into the middle. Esfandiari instantly called and tabled and discovered he was in a coinflip against .
Esfandiari's tens remained best as the board ran , the completing the board and doubling "The Magician" to 15,000 chips.
More than two thousand runners took their seats this afternoon for Day 1A of the Little One for One Drop, and the field of 2,233 was quickly whittled down to just 428 survivors.
Along the way there were a number of notable names to fire a first, second, and even third bullet during this reentry event, with Melanie Weisner, Tony Dunst, Erick Lindgren, Pius Heinz, Jennifer Tilly, Dwyte Pilgrim, and Antonio Esfandiari just a few of the pros to go busto before the night ended.
Mikolaj Zawadzki emerged from the fray as the chip leader, having amassed an enormous stack of 85,225 by the time bag-and-tag began. The Polish pro has company on the leaderboard, however, as Liv Boeree (65,675), Paul Volpe (32,225), Randy Lew (26,300), Erik Seidel (23,575), and Tommy Vedes (18,400) are all lurking with healthy stacks.
The tournament will continue tomorrow at 12 noon local time, with those who fell on Day 1A returning for a second try, while thousands more take their first shot at the Little One for One Drop. Check back with PokerNews then to follow all of the action live from the floor of the Rio, as Day 1B plays down and the final Day 2 field is set.
Event #58: $1,111 Little One for One Drop No-Limit Hold'em