Poker is Alive and Well
by Brett on 06.27.09, 4:43 pm
Tournament officials announced that the cap for today’s $1,500 No Limit Hold ‘em Event (#51) was 2,790 players but the total number has mysteriously increased to 2,791. We’re guessing either Pope Benedict XVI or Phil Ivey showed up late and was allowed to sneak in.
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin is in attendance and seems more than pleased with today’s turnout. “Poker is alive and well,” he wrote on his Twitter page during the first level. It’s good to see that Eric has mastered the art of “tweeting” on his phone after joining the Twitter Parade last week.
Amit “amak316″ Makhija (pictured left) was 25 minutes late arriving to the Rio today but probably wishes he’d stopped for a coffee or a donut on the way in. Just moments after taking his seat he ran his A-K suited into pocket aces and was eliminated.
Mohsin “chicagocards” Charania, Matt “SamENole” Smith, Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury and Chad “lilholdem954″ Batista joined Makhija on the rail early on. Charania found himself in an unfortunate cooler situation. On a flop of K-K-J Charania bet 325 and one player called. The turn brought a 10 and all of the chips went in, Charania holding J-J and his opponent with K-10 for a higher full house.
Smith’s stack took a big hit in the first level and he was forced to move in for his last 600 preflop with K-J. A player at his table picked up pocket aces and made the call, sending Smith home with another disappointing result at this year’s WSOP.
Steury got his chips in with pocket aces on a T-8-2 flop but his opponent had flopped a set of eights to knock out him out.
We don’t know what happened to Batista but Shaun “Cougars4444″ Hendrickson, who was seated at the next table, jokingly told us that he thinks Chad “busted before they dealt the first hand.”
Players will go on their first break in 20 minutes. We’ll gather some early chip counts for you then.
