2007 World Series of Poker Player of the Year Tom Schneider got off to a good start here on Day 1c as he worked his stack up to 43,000. Unfortunately for him, a recent hand just knocked him back down to square one.
With around 7,000 in the pot and a flop of , the player in the small blind bet 4,500 and Schneider, who was in the cutoff, responded with a raise to 10,000. The small blind thought for a few moments before shoving all in for 16,550 total, and Schneider didn't seem to like it. He paused for a bit and then flicked his cards to the muck.
Picking up the action after flop, Mickey Petersen (big blind) and a player in middle position checked to Phil Ivey in the cutoff. Ivey bet 1,000, both opponents called and the landed on the turn. Action was checked to Ivey again and he bet 3,000. Only Petersen called to see the river and both players checked.
Petersen showed for a set, but it was second best to Ivey's for a flopped straight. Before stacking his chips, though, Ivey stared at Petersen with his mouth open for about five seconds before asking, "That's all I won?"
With that pot, Ivey is back above the starting stack.
Shane Warne is one of the greatest sportsman of our generation. Unfortunately for the majority of our readers who are based in the USA, his name may not be as highly regarded as ones such as Michael Jordan or Derek Jeter because Warne plays the game of cricket. The most popular sport in the world behind only soccer.
Like Jordan, Warne is arguably one of the greatest players in his chosen sport amassing a career set of accolades that include 708 Test wickets, 293 One-Day International wickets, an unfortunate high score of 99 and the honor of bowling the Ball of the Century to Mike Gatting in his first ever delivery at Old Trafford in England.
Warne however has been a keen poker player over the past few years and amassed results in Australia and abroad while participating in both the WSOP and WSOP Europe Main Events in recent times. However this is where Warne's story gets interesting.
Just this weekend, the Lord's Cricket Ground; the Official Home of Cricket, hosted a 200th Anniversary match between the MCC and Rest of the World sides. Warne's ex-teammate Brett Lee was bowling to Warne, and struck him with a beamer in the hand. Warne continued to play on, but an x-ray later revealed that Warne had broken his right hand. Bandaged up and in a cast, Warne had to make a flight from England to Las Vegas so that he could take a seat in today's Main Event flight.
Our PokerNews blogger - who is also a fellow Australian - bumped into Warne during the hallway at the last break and said hello. Warne then detailed how his broken hand was just the start of his rocky road to get here.
Although Warne and his family - a party of eight in total - were booked on an early flight out of Heathrow airport, that flight would cancelled. With Warne needing to find another flight to get everyone her to Las Vegas, he found two options landing at Chicago or Miami and Warne quickly got his group together and headed to the airport. On the way down the A4 however, the car he was being transported in broke down and a quick-thinking Warne turned into hitchhiker mode where he happened to flag down an Indian man in a van who happily gave all eight people and their mass of luggage a ride so that Warne could make it in time.
Warne - who is located in the Black section of the Pavilion room - was hoping to register late today so that he could be extra refreshed to tackle a day of poker, but unfortunately his sponsor 888Poker registered him on time so that his stack was in play from the start.
"I have to run good today. It can only go up from here!" stated an optimistic Warne during break.
Zo Karim was in the cutoff on a board of , and he called 1,300 from the player in the small blind. On the river, the small blind checked, and Karim instantly tossed out 200. The small blind called, and Karim showed for top pair.
"Ladies and gentleman, I would like to take a moment to point out a man who's been at every World Series of Poker for 41 years and counting," Nolan Dalla just announced inside the Amazon Room.
Howard 'Tahoe' Andrew is seated at a table in the Tan section where he will battle it out today with the likes of Alexander Kuzmin, Aaron Massey, Jameson Painter and Max Lykov.
Since 1973, Andrew has played in at least one World Series of Poker event every year, his best being 1976 when he won two bracelets. On the list of results of both tournaments he managed to win, no other players are listed, indicating it was a winner-take-all format.
Andrew made the 1984 WSOP Main Event final table, won by Jack Keller, and cashed in 1987, 1992 and 2004. In the 2003 Senior's Event, Andrew finished 8th followed by cashes in 2007 and 2010. In total, Tahoe has 254 tournament results and is just shy of $1.5 million in career earnings.
Ari Engel raised to 800 from early position and found callers from the cutoff, the player who "misclicked" earlier called from the small blind and Jonathan Duhamel called from the big blind.
The action checked to Engel on the flop and everyone except Duhamel called.
Again, the action checked to Engel on the turn, and he kept his foot firmly on the gas and bet 1,700. A few moments later, the cutoff raised to 3,800. Mr Misclick asked for confirmation of the raise's size before folding and Engel slammed on the brakes and let his hand go.