Tuesday, June 30, 2009 12:11 AM Local Time
Day 1 of the 2009 WSOP's final $1,500 No-Limit Hold 'em event is history.
2,818 players scattered themselves around the Amazon, Brasilia and Miranda rooms this afternoon in pursuit of nearly $675,000 in first-place prize money, a gold bracelet, and a spot in WSOP history. Only 384 of them will return at 2PM to continue their quests.
Leading the pack on our return tomorrow will be Jon Christensen with 159,800. Zsombor Gall and Henry Meratan will be chasing close behind. Also lurking are a few well known players like Carlos Mortensen, Theo Tran, and Hevad Khan.
The action picks up at 2PM, so be sure to join us when we shuffle up and deal again.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009 12:03 AM Local Time
Players have just four hands left before we bag and tag the chips for the night.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009 12:01 AM Local Time
In a little battle of the blinds, Craig Hartman raised to 3,500 from the small and got the call from Lauren Kling in the big.
On a flop of
, Hartman took a long time to act before finally over-betting the pot for 10,000. Kling let out a soft "Wow" when the chips hit the felt, and she took a few seconds before finally mucking her hand.
Hartman turned over
for the straight flush draw, prompting another player at the table to ask, "So, when did you like your hand?"
Monday, June 29, 2009 11:55 PM Local Time
Raymond Rahme has managed a nice double when his
held up against an opponent's
.
The board ran out
to see Rahme double through to 43,000 and change.
Monday, June 29, 2009 11:40 PM Local Time
Floating under the radar and straight to the top of the chip leaderboard we find the following players.
Jon Christensen - 145,100
Zsombor Gall - 110,200
Henry Meratan - 107,500
Jorge 'Twin_Caracas' Arias - 92,000
Jason Hodges - 88,000
Jody Howe - 81,800
Brandon Wong - 75,600
Ben Palmer 75,000
Monday, June 29, 2009 11:32 PM Local Time
Men "The Master" Nguyen raised to 3,500 from the cutoff and the big blind hesitated before making a decision. Men looked at him and pretended to move the rest of his stack in. "I got 6,500 left. All you can eat baby."
The big blind opted to just call, and we saw a flop of
. Action checked to Nguyen, who made a "friendly bet" of 3,500. Again, the big blind didn't know what to do.
"If you show me your hand, I'll show you mine," Nguyen said.
"I think I want to keep you in," the big blind said.
"You want to keep me in? Please call."
The big blind continued to tank before finally folding and showing ace-jack. Nguyen, true to his word, showed ace-six and took the pot.
Monday, June 29, 2009 11:18 PM Local Time
Joe Morneau - 71,000
Sanford Lee - 55,000
Jim Pechec - 51,000
Jack Powell - 50,000
Nancy Todd Tyner - 41,000
Vivek Rajkumar - 33,000
Lily Bui - 32,000
Richard En - 31,000
Carlos Mortensen - 30,000
Jason Gray - 29,000
Wendeen Eolis - 28,000
Richard Lee - 26,000
Hevad Khan - 24,000
Dean Hamrick - 23,000
Lauren Kling - 21,000
Anthony Harb - 18,000
Van Nguyen - 14,000
Men Nguyen - 11,000
Wooka Kim - 8,000
Monday, June 29, 2009 11:14 PM Local Time
Players have now entered the final hour of today's play.
Monday, June 29, 2009 11:14 PM Local Time
Hevad Khan's stack is shrinking. In the last hand, he called a 2,500 raise preflop, as did the big blind.
A flop of
brought a check from the big blind, a bet of 3,000, and a call from Khan. When the big blind check-raised to 12,000, the original raiser folded and Khan didn't act immediately.
"I may have to go with this," he said before finally mucking his hand. His opponent flashed ace-queen for top two before scooping the pot. Khan is down to about 15,000.
Monday, June 29, 2009 10:56 PM Local Time
Gary Tang check-called Jonathan Little's 3,500 bet on a board of
, and then check-raised Little all in after the
fell on the river.
Little called and Tang showed
for the nut house. Little mucked and headed to the rail.
Monday, June 29, 2009 10:34 PM Local Time
With a raise to 1,600 before him, Alexander Kostritsyn made the call before an opponent upped the action to 8,000.
The original raiser called before Kostritsyn moved all in for over 26,000. The reraiser called and the original raiser folded.
Kostritsyn:
Opponent:
The board ran out
to see a suck, re-suck scenario with Kostritsyn falling on the wrong side and consequently having to head to the rail.
Monday, June 29, 2009 10:23 PM Local Time
On a flop of
, Nancy Todd Tyner check-raised her opponent's 3,500 bet to 7,500.
When her opponent mucked two black jacks face up, Tyner just grinned and scooped up the chips.
Monday, June 29, 2009 10:15 PM Local Time
With the action folding round to the short-stacked Mike Stecker in the cutoff, he pushed his last 7,100 into the middle.
The button player made the call, and the blinds passed to see the cards tabled.
Stecker:
Opponent:
The board ran out
to see Stecker head to the rail.
Monday, June 29, 2009 10:13 PM Local Time
The cards are back in the air for the final two levels of play.
Monday, June 29, 2009 9:43 PM Local Time
The players are going on their last break for the tournament.
Monday, June 29, 2009 9:34 PM Local Time
Carlos Mortensen - 54,700
Sanford Lee - 48,000
Theo Tran - 47,300
Nancy Todd Tyner - 39,800
Richard En - 39,000
Wendeen Eolis - 37,100
Vivek Rajkumar - 35,500
Jack Powell - 33,000
Jim Pechec - 31,000
Richard Lee - 30,000
Hevad Khan - 29,500
Alexander Kostritsyn - 28,900
Lily Bui - 21,000
Jason Gray - 19,800
Dean Hamrick - 19,500
Jason Mercier - 16,500
Van Nguyen - 16,100
Men Nguyen - 15,600
Teddy Monroe - 12,100
Wooka Kim - 8,900
Jonathan Little - 8,100
Anthony Harb - 6,800
Catherine Calhoun - 3,800
Monday, June 29, 2009 9:34 PM Local Time
Joe Morneau check-called for 2,500 on a board of
. He and his opponent then both checked the
on the turn, and Morneau bet 3,500 on the
on the river. He got the call and showed
for aces up. His opponent mucked.
Monday, June 29, 2009 9:33 PM Local Time
Liv Boeree pushed all in for her last 5,550 and got one caller.
Boeree:
Opponent:
The flop of
was bad for Boeree and the turn was worse, bringing the
. A meaningless
on the river sent Boeree to the rail.
Monday, June 29, 2009 9:21 PM Local Time
When the small blind raised to 7,000, Theo Tran didn't hesitate to move all in from the big blind.
"You got me, you got me good," the small blind said as he moved his last few chips into the middle. "I'm embarrassed," he added, turning up
.
Embarrassed or not, his cards were live against Tran's
. Live cards didn't matter though, as neither player connected on a board of
and Tran took the pot.
Monday, June 29, 2009 9:17 PM Local Time
We caught this hand just as Teddy "The Iceman" Monroe pushed his last chips into the center to call another player's all in.
Monroe:
Opponent:
When the board came
, Monroe raked the chips and started talking to the player across from him.
"I shouldn't have said anything. You would have come in too. You heard me say I wanted to crack two people," Monroe said.
"I didn't hear a thing."
"Yeah you did. Heard clear as day. It's OK though."