WSOP $50,000 H.O.R.S.E Day 1 - At A Glance

[snoopy1239]

Top of the poker pops courtesy of worldseriesofpoker.com

1st  Eli Elezra -- $400,000
2nd  Allen Cunningham -- $230,000
3rd  Alexander Kravchenko -- $221,000
4th  Bruno Fitoussi -- $215,000
5th  Abe Mosseri -- $204,200
6th  Sherkhan Farnood -- $188,000
7th  Barry Greenstein -- $175,000
8th  Erick Lindgren -- $170,300
9th  Erik Seidel -- $170,200
10th  Phil Hellmuth Jr. -- $168,000


And here are a few more chip counts:

Erik Seidel -- 129,400
Victor Ramdin -- 129,400
Howard Lederer -- 85,300
Jim Betchel -- 47,400
David Skalnsky -- 89,500
John Duthie -- 68,500
Jennifer Harman -- 75,500
Chris Ferguson -- 75,000
Mickey Appleman -- 128,500
Justin Bonomo -- 98,500
Phil Laak -- 143,500
Tony G -- 76,500
Mark Vos -- 36,300

I had to exlude a few as it was too difficult to state their count with considerable affirmation due to poor lighting, badly designed chips, dodgy colour choices, etc. 25k is a hell figure if I miscount just one of those browny pink chips.

[snoopy1239]

Bad news Irish Brit monk fans, I just overheard a bellow from the pressroom of "Andy Black is out!"

[snoopy1239]

Isabelle Mercier -- 89,200
Ted Forrest -- 138,100
Todd Brunson -- 107,500
David Oppenheim -- 200,700
David Singer -- 100,700
Michael Mizrachi -- 62,400
Mike Sexton -- 40,200
Kirk Morrison -- 77,800
Phil Ivey -- 203,800
Dewey Tomko -- 141,200
Mike Wattel -- 89,900
Rob Hollink -- 122,300
Noah Jefferson -- 76,800
Kristy Gazes -- 130,200
David Grey -- 143,000
David Levi -- 89,400

[snoopy1239]

H

Watching Limit Hold'Em is easier for us to follow, but doesn't seem to create as much action as you might expect.

I did notice that Howard Lederer is struggling after being check-raised off a Flop by Sam Farha.

The Professor is currently tootering along with a vulnerable but no-need-to-panic-just-yet 60,800.

[snoopy1239]

H

Elezra marches on!

Flop =

Elezra bets 2k, Hassan Habib makes it 4k, Elezra calls.

Turn =

Both players check, Habib rather tentatively as if suspicious of Elezra.

River =

Elezra bets 4k, Habib calls, Elezra wins with Queens.

Nice value bet.

[snoopy1239]

H

Rob Hollink is finding life difficult, passing ferociously (those cards flew into the muck) after David Williams check-raises him on Flop. Williams laughs and reveals Pocket Nines.

[Djinn]

H

And after getting on for 12 hours, I witnessed my first all-in!  It was a big blind A-Q getting it all in on the fourth bet preflop against A-7 and doubling up.  I was still excited to see some cards on their backs and admit hung there like a vulture.  I think Charles Lehr was the doubler-upper with the cutoff rag-ish Ace, but he's probably not bothered about that now because he won an enormous pot soon thereafter.  It looks like this particular table may have been a bit dominated by Scotty Nguyen, however, who looks like he has over 180k. 

[Djinn]

E

I forgot to mention that before the most recent game change I was kind of resting my feet standing still in front of the Patrik Antonius table.  The statuesque Finn was coolly winning hand after hand of the game, the last one I watched being one where having bet until his board showed X X , against a showing of X X , at which point he check called.  A good thing clearly happened for him on the river, as he scooped that pot revealing his down ...

At which point a certain couple of young Dutch players on the rail shouted:  "You're our hero, Patrik!"  They received the same quiet treatment as everyone else, but I'm sure he was grinning inside, at least a little bit.

[Djinn]

The game is now turning to 2k/4k limit Omaha 8/b... after a brief break.  We are looking probably at another couple of hours of play tonight, but we're not sure of anything yet.  The last hold'em round I saw Thor Hansen take down a good couple of pots, once with a pocket paint pair (I tell you, my distance vision is really shaky).  Also Thien Phan re-raised from the small blind after Bill Chen raised in the cutoff, and proceeded to bet out every street, until with the board his river bet saw off his opponent without showdown.

[snoopy1239]

O

Raisy daisy hand between Ade Mosseri and Erik Seidel.

Flop =

Abe bets 2k, MB calls, Erick raises to 4k, Abe re-raises to 6k, MB folds, Erik calls.

Turn =

Abe checks, Erik bets 4k, Abe makes it 8k, Erik calls.

River =

Abe check calls 4k, Erik scoops with .

[snoopy1239]

Courtesy of worldseriesofpoker.com

1st  Eli Elezra -- $427,000
2nd  Bruno Fitoussi -- $310,000
3rd  Gavin Smith -- $237,000
4th  Alexander Kravchenko -- $235,000
5th  Toto Leonidas -- $224,000
6th  Scotty Nguyen -- $215,000
7th  Allen Cunningham -- $198,000
8th  Phil Hellmuth Jr. -- $192,000
9th  David Oppenheim -- $191,000
10th  Matthew Hawrilenko -- $190,000

[Djinn]

Oh, and I was just about to stun everyone with my chip count coup that Bruno Fitoussi was probably chip leader, or close, with 300k.  Well, did you know he'd just moved tables as the second one of the evening was broken?  Next to John Juanda?  He has, giving a noncommital modest shrug when I gave him the stack-counting-thumbs-up. 

I was entirely wrong about the predicted finish of tonight - it's actually at the end of this level, which is Razz, in about 15 minutes' time...they don't make the $50k H.O.R.S.E.rs run a marathon, just a five-day jog.

[snoopy1239]

And with that, the poker referee has blown his final whistle, and we're done for the night. It's been an odd day, as the HORSE tends to be, but an interesting experience nonetheless. I believe we lost around 15 players today, which is a big difference to the 2 we lost on Day 1 of last year. If you want to learn more about that, then it's certainly worth reading Daniel Negreanu's blog where he comments about the structure of this weeks 50k event.

Anyhow, I believe the chip counts (or hope) will arrive in my inbox as soon as they are available, but until then, check out these top 10 chip counts from worldseriesofpoker.com...

1st  Eli Elezra -- $520,000
2nd  Bruno Fitoussi -- $360,000
3rd  David Oppenheim -- $270,000
4th  Gavin Smith -- $237,000
5th  Alexander Kravchenko -- $235,000
6th  Barry Greenstein -- $231,000
7th  Toto Leonidas -- $224,000
8th  Scotty Nguyen -- $215,000
9th  Darrell Dicken -- $200,000
10th  Erik Seidel -- $190,000

[Djinn]

We return tomorrow at 2pm, LV time, or, for you in the UK, 8pm tonight.