Sixty to Zero
by Court on 10.21.09, 7:13 pm
Players started the tournament with 600 big blinds. By the end of the first level only Soheil Shamseddin had managed to get rid of all his chips. The next level cut the average stack from 600 big blinds down to 300 big blinds as the cost of playing went up to 100 / 200, still leaving the players super deep stacked for tournament poker. Justin “Boosted J” Smith, Robert Mizrachi and David Benyamine all managed to dust off the chips, proving yet again that in no limit poker anything can happen in just a few hands.
Two levels and three hours worth of play into the day and the field size is continuing to climb, up to 224 registered players. Last year the field for this tournament clocked in at 368, but there was no expectation of the number of entrants this year matching the 2008 tally. Many predictions a few days before the tournament guessed that the field size would come in somewhere between the 240 - 260 player range, which seems about right on with 224 already on the board and a handful of other players already saying they were planning to buy in tomorrow along with any satellite winners from today that could still get in the tournament.
For now, those in play on hoping to build up a stack to give them a better chance against the rest of the field and the late entrants coming into the action tomorrow. Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little (left) flopped a flush against Cornel Cimpan on a J
73 board and got check called on all three streets. At showdown his T9 was plenty to win the pot and Little is up to almost 80k chips in the early going of the Festa al Lago.
David “DavidP18″ Peters had a draw to an ace high flush after a flop of 8
54 but the turn and river came with the K
and the 6. Peters made a stab at the pot with a bet of 6,325 but was looked up by a player with pocket jacks. Peters had to show first and his A{Jx} went into the muck once the other player exposed his pocket jacks. Chad “M8kingmoves” Batista also put out a river bet that included a grey chip worth 5k. His 5,500 bet was called by Adam Geyer and Batista’s top pair top kicker raked in the pot on the board showing Q5395.
The year has been a good one for Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin who is leading in one of the major player of the year races. He is back in the action today hoping to pad his lead and pick up another big score. On the turn of a J856
board Eric check called a 1,400 chip bet from Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy but with the Q on the river Baldwin check folded to the 2,800 bet from Bax. Cliff flashed the 86 to Eric as he raked in the pot.
