WSOP MAIN EVENT: DAY 1A - Interactive

[snoopy1239]

Wowzer, if ever there was a reason why not to go to the gym, then this is it, a quick trundle around the 1,300 packed cardroom being enough to make even Mr Motivator wince and complain of a stitch. However, I can't complain too much, having receiving plenty of brief rests as I stopped to chat to the many homegrown players we have hurled into this year's World Series. One of those was Julian Gardener, looking a little worse for wears and perhaps regretting a late night out that I'm sure he reluctantly (ahem) experienced.

Others that may well have experienced the odd drink or two would perhaps have been the Dusk Till Dawn crew, their inevitable 'get-together' (or, more accurately, piss-up) at the Palms' cheeky Playboy Club surely producing the odd hang over or two (or three, or four - well, however members are in the team actually).

The very first table I hunted down was indeed Richard Ashby's, but whilst his seat remained vacant, just a few tables down, a celebrity was present, Michael 'Don't Call Me Beppe' Greco seated right on the edge of the cardroom. As you can see from the photo, he wasn't quite his bubbly chirpy self, which either meant he was entirely focused on the task at hand, or indeed had decided against the night in with slippers and hot cocoa in favour of a more fun-filled escapade through Vegas. He wouldn't be the only one, everyone here's looks hung over!

The final DTDer that I managed to find was Dave Colclough, who I'm sure I couldn't see on the initial player list (which, incidentally, has more pages than Bleak House). Dave was certainly looking serious; cap lowered, shades in places, ipod beating away - if anyone's going to beat Dave this week, I feel the last person it'll be is himself.

But the Dusk Till Dawn boys weren't the only men (and women) flying the flag, a whole heap of Brits spotted as I trawled the seemingly endless sea of tables. Here are just a few of those players:

Des Wilson
Teddy Sheringham
Willie Tann
Ian Woodley
Mel Judah
Marty Smyth
Richard Rudling-Smith
Dave Gregory
Nik Persaud
Joe Beevers
Gala's McDonald
Kathreen Hatree
Thomas Dunwoody
Mickey Wernick
Peter Gould
Luke Patten
Mohammed Hassan
Dave Ulliott
Steve Davis
Mark Teltscher
Andrew Andreou
Jeff Buffenbarger
Iwan Jones
Dave Mobbs
Ben Callinan
Jac Arama

Also:

Bertrand Grospellier
Kristian Kjondal
Jani Sointula
Andreas Hagen
Thomas Wahlroos
Marcel Luske

I also searched for some of those names highlighted by you guys, but the Mayo Mob and Mark Forester all seem to have morphed into someone else, unless, and this is possibly the more likely explanation, the Table and Seats you gave me were somehow incorrect. Either way, I'll continue to keep an eye out for them and let you know if I unearth those poker needles from the Rio haystack.

Not unexpectedly, there have been a shortage of hands witnessed, maybe due to the 20k stack and very generous 2 hour clock, but I did witness my first Mateyboy squared encounter, Midlander Dave Mobbs looking on as two of his Table mates crossed swords, the younger of the two feeling obliged to say "Great, f***ed first hand" as his 3-4 on a 2-J-5-6-A paid off a Turned flush.

One hand that DID involve a Brit, was the button vs. small blind confrontation between an American player and last year's 12th place finished John Magill, the Irishman holding K-6 vs. Mateyboy's A-K on a 3-8-K-6-2 board. What I was asking myself was - if Mateyboy had A-K on the button, did John call a pe-flop raise with K-6. If so, he's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy.

Anyhow, I'd better end this gigantic sludge of 1st hour waffle before I cause too many people to slip into comas, but what I will say as I finish is that although the online industry has taken a hit prior to this year's World Series, there are some things that never change. One being the hustle and bustle of the World Series, and the other being the shoddy standard of play, some of the eye-opening hands I've already witnessed surely accounting for the 5 or so tables that have already broken.

Has an update ever started with the word 'Wowzer' before? I do hope not.

Full chip count on the way...
_______________________________________________________________________

And hello from me:

The organisation is pretty tight, with the hundreds of tables riffling their chips (20k this year) in what looks very much like order.  The usual gaps around the tables wait for their Iveys, Hellmuths or late sleepers, while whenever a Legend enters the room, an announcement is made.  "Give a hand for Texas Dolly, double champion of the World Series..." at which point the room ever so briefly stops compulsively playing with their stacks and claps whichever Legend just arrived.  Pretty impressive round of applause, actually.

My story of level One has to be that of Des Fitzpatrick, pictured with the black Equal Chance T-shirt on.  He's blurry because he was that second springing from his chair and heading out of the arena.  I assumed the midday desperation for a hotdog had overcome yet another player, but no, he was actually heading out of the building.  It appears that he'd made Day Two of a Venetian comp, which he'd assumed was a one-dayer and now found himself returning to with 40 players left.  "I can miss a level or two," he remarked, casually - multitabling in two different casinos isn't something I've seen before.

Neighbours!  Besides Mickey and Thomas I found the wide-awake-club Jani Sointula and Willie Tann, and Ian Woodley and Mel Judah, who look to be having a fine old time already, and the first two-hour level isn't over yet.

One hand I saw a garish orange chip (5k - a quarter of a stack) getting tossed in on the river on a board by a becowboyhatted Matey, called.  He said, "Flush," turning over the .  It was good.  "Tilt," explained Hatmatey - "These are free chips, y'all come get 'em."

[jt23lfc]

Is Conor "Sealey" Tate playing today??

[maxward]

For anyone whos interested, I kick off on day 3, table 99 seat 1.

The scale of the whole thing is pretty incredible, as is the average size of the american, Johnny Vegas could be an underwear model comared to these guys!

[DesD]

For anyone whos interested, I kick off on day 3, table 99 seat 1.

The scale of the whole thing is pretty incredible, as is the average size of the american, Johnny Vegas could be an underwear model comared to these guys!

Best of luck on Sunday Max, and to all blondes playing the main event.

[kinboshi]

For anyone whos interested, I kick off on day 3, table 99 seat 1.

The scale of the whole thing is pretty incredible, as is the average size of the american, Johnny Vegas could be an underwear model comared to these guys!

Best of luck fella  

[snoopy1239]

Venturing into the cardroom for the second time, I made a concerted effort to hunt down some of the requested players. If he’s 60-ish with greyish hair and glasses, then I’ve certainly found Simon Stocken, who still has around his starting stack. The same can be said about Jac Arama, who was indeed seated in Table 1, Seat 1 (on Day 1) like he claimed the other day. Then again, with his funky glasses, you could line up all the poker players in the world and still spot Jac.

Conor Tate is also here, as reserved as always but seemingly delighted to hear that he had support and was grateful for the good luck message. Continuing the trend of the previous paragraph, the Irishman, who finished 12th a couple of years ago, still has around his starting stack.

A couple of players, however, I’m still having trouble locating, Danny McHugh of the Mayo Mob being one of them. Unless he’s lost all his hair, grown a beard and put on 5 stone, then he certainly isn’t Seat 1 on Table 208, which, incidentally, is being infested by a Woodley/Judah combo.

One observation that has been made today, is the severa lack of PokerStars shirts, many perhaps deciding to keep the 10k and spending it on something less costly. “I know three people who qualified on there,” commented the Gutshot’s Barry Martin, “but not one of them has turned up.”

What has remained constant though is the sense of fun at the World Series, Jeff Madsen being a prime example of this as he dons a Jester’s outfit, albeit with a face like a dog chewing on a wasp on a nettle. I thought Jester’s were meant to be jovial!

Someone who looks similarly dejected is Michael Greco, but although I assumed that it was due to a alcohol induced hangover, it’s merely fatigue, the clunkiness of the World Series started to get to the Eastender who has been  present in Vegas for quite a while now. When asked on his progress so far in this event, the response was a simple one… “Nothing”. “That’ll make a good report,” I replied. “Just nothing,” said Greco treating me with an additional word.

In what has become a tough task, I did manage to witness a hand involving two players I recognise, Austrian highroller Markus Golser and Midlander Mohammed Hassan locking horns early doors. The board read , and the action was on Golser, but as the high roller threw 3k onto the felt, he was beaten into the pot by Hassan, who then checked the River. Golser slowed down and checked behind him, and it was lucky he did, as Hassan was sitting with the rather nutty and making a cheeky trap-check on the River. No big payday come the final card, but the Brit still climbs to 25k for a nice tidy start.

Other players I passed were Andy Black, who looked rather less engulfing and upbeat than normal, Dave Mobbs, who has risen to 30k after “hitting trips and making a lot of re-raises with good hands” and Teddy Sheringham, who along with Tony Cascarino, is flying the European flag for the footy players.

But before I trot back off into the poker oblivion, here’s an amusing conversation I had with New Zealand’s James Honeybone:

James: Hey, were you in Polan.
Me: Yeah, that was me, your name’s Honeybone, right?
James: Yeah.
Me: James Honeybone from New Zealand?
James: Spot on.
Me: Oh, I’ve still got it. You’ve come along way again.
James: Yeah, tend to have to travel for my poker coming from New Zealand.
Me: You should go the whole hog and pop over to England for a game. That’s gotta be further away than any country.
James: Yeah, I’d certainly come for the birds at least, don’t you think.
Me: Well, only if you mean the ones in the tree.
James: Ha.
Me: (panicking) I’m not saying you’ve got a bird fetish or anything.

Oh, the bizarre conversations you can have with people you’ve only met once. Only at WSOP!
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We've reached the first break!  People everywhere - I didn't have a whole conversation with anyone, but you do get that incredible Bad Beat Corridor.  A fairly big chunk of tables has broken already, and if you tune in to the dealers only, "Seat open!" rings out more often than you'd expect (if you'd never been to the WSOP before).  And it's not all Aces outdrawn by AK either - I saw at least 10k go in on a nine-high flop called by someone with AA - the mover had K-T off.  Seat open.

Rudders is being railed (sort of) by Jon Raab who is wisely refraining from setting non-accredited foot in the tournament ring - he's gone for the single tables.  High roller Raab, as he's now known...he's sat two to the left of Hendon Mobster Joe Beevers.  Speaking of the Hendons, I spotted Ram Vaswani in the room earlier today - still not seen him sat at a table yet, but will keep looking.  He looks like he's walking about a foot above the ground after his bracelet win hours ago...

Pictured in the bottom trio are Players Expressing Mild Surprise:
Richard Rudling-Smith
Peter Gould
Richard Ashby

[jt23lfc]

Hi Snoopy, thanks for the message about Conor Tate. If you see him again tell him his youngest brother says good luck!!

[BigTomatoes]

 Sealey is quality , used to watch him on Ladbrokes a lot when Actionjack and him were the men.

[JacArama]

Hi All.

I played today, Day 1, Table 1 Seat 1.

It is the first break. This year they increased the starting stack from 10,000 to 20,000, but missed out the 25 - 50 blind and started with 50 - 100.

There are only 1500 players on day 1.

My table is very frisky, and every hand is raised pre flop by about 600 and around 50% are reraised.

Every time I tried to limp in, I had to pass the raise / reraise.

2 memorable hands.

The first was about 90 minutes in and I was down to 14,000 after a bad river. I raised to 400 pre flop with   

2 callers.

The flop was 

I bet 800, he called.

The turn was 

He bet 1200 & I called.

The River was 

Now he bet 5500.

It seemed like a huge over bet.

I reflected for about 3 minutes and called - he mucked before I turned over my cards.

The other hand, I had pocket queens and raised to 400. The player to my left raised to 1500 & the button reraised to 3000. I passed, but the player to my left called with    .

The flop was 

check, bet pass. The button had pocket kings!!! Lucky escape!

Next break in 2 hours.

I have 22,500 chips

[langboy]

Adam,

Can you confirm that Markus Golser is wearing his Intertops gear....otherwise we won't be paying him!  

Thanks much old chap.  

Mike

[Jim-D]

Thanks for the update Jac, Good luck this afternoon.

[jt23lfc]

 Sealey is quality , used to watch him on Ladbrokes a lot when Actionjack and him were the men.

Well lets hope he goes 11 better than 2 years ago eh!!

[kinboshi]

Jac - keep us informed.

[brummieboy]

Ram's out according to the WSOP website.

[neeko]

Speaking of the Hendons, I spotted Ram Vaswani in the room earlier today - still not seen him sat at a table yet, but will keep looking.  He looks like he's walking about a foot above the ground after his bracelet win hours ago...

Ram is currently being found playng 200/400 PLO on FTP - easy table just Gus & Zigmund - although Zig has gone though $80k in 10 mins, and Gus is over $150k - maybe the main event is too small a game for the Dane?