Event #58: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em MAIN EVENT - World Championship

With the conclusion of Day 1c, the Day 2a table and seat draw is now available for viewing. To check out the draw, click here to view the PDF file. All 2,031 remaining players from Day 1a and Day 1c should be listed. Day 2a will take place on Monday, July 11, 2011 and begin promptly at 12:00 PM PT.

The Day 2b draw will become available after the completion of Day 1d on Sunday. Note that anyone listed with a chip count of "1" did not report their count or it was illegible by the World Series of Poker staff.

Well, that's three starting days of the Main Event down, one to go.

This Day 1c is in the books after five levels, a relatively easy day as far as the Series is concerned. Our Day 1a (897) and Day 1b (985) fields tallied up to 1,882, and that overall number was more than doubled today. An impressive 2,181 players chose this day as their starting day, a much bigger turnout than many of the players and media were guessing. After three days, 4,056 players have put up the $10,000 required to play, and we're going to have another full house of players tomorrow. Reaching the 6,000 mark is a lock (in fact, we're told that many are already registered), and hitting that magical 7,000 number is within the realm of possibility, at least. Unlikely, but possible.

We had Chris McClung as our chip leader with 162,375 at night's end, but there are some murmurs that Kevin Song bagged up 163,325. We can't confirm the latter for sure, but we can tell you that both men still trail the 209,500 chips that Day 1a that big stack Fred Berger bagged up a couple nights ago.

One of the greatest features of the Main Event is that it brings together a far-reaching group of players, some of whom are much better known away from the felt. The WSOP welcomed a champion from the hardwood today as Paul Pierce of the Boston Celtics came out with guns blazing. It took just a couple levels for him to climb close to 100,000 and near the top of our counts, but a late-day cool-off set him back to a still-quite-healthy 63,750 at night's end. Also in the field was Australian cricketing legend Shane Warne, former Olympic boxer Audley Harrison, the TV funnyman duo of Brad Garrett and Ray Romano, Hungarian model Krisztina Polgar, and a 91-year-old woman, Ms. Ellen Deeb. Of that list, only Brad Garrett and Audley Harrison survived long enough to bag up chips.

2011 bracelet winners go at the top of the list of notables, and we had several of them in this third flight, too. Allen Bari, Jason Somerville, and Fabrice Soulier all came and went very quickly, though, all coming up several thousand places short in their bids to snag another bracelet for the other arm this summer.

Former Main Event champions? We had a whole gaggle of them! Seven, in fact. Chris Moneymaker got a special introduction over the speaker system as he sat down to play, but he was run out of the room within the first levels when he got his money in with pocket threes against pocket tens on a jack-ten-nine flop. That was all she wrote, and Moneymaker is still looking for his first Main Event cash since he won the thing eight years ago. The other WSOP kings joining the field all survived including Bobby Baldwin (27,500), Scotty Nguyen (48,325), Dan Harrington (42,300), Joe Cada (58,225), Jonathan Duhamel (41,150), and the Brat himself (and Player of the Year leader), Phil Hellmuth. The antics of Hellmuth's entry were tuned down a bit this year, but he still made quite a scene in the corridor as he walked through with cameras leading and a crowd of fans trailing. It was mostly a bad day for Hellmuth, though, and he could only save 11,800 chips to come back to on Day 2. There's good news for Hellmuth on Day 2, though. He's drawn Table 99 (lucky for Hellmuth) Seat 7 (lucky for everyone!).

Other notable survivors today include Daniel "jungleman12" Cates, Adam Junglen, Ted Forrest, Humberto Brenes, Mark Newhouse (who was near the top of the chip counts most of the day), and the 2002 Scripps National Spelling Bee champion, Praytush Buddiga. Big stacks? Junglen is one of them with 127,025 chips, and he's in the mix with Giuseppe Zarbo (159,400), Daniel Skolovys (151,475), Don Nguyen (136,000), and Sean Picquelle (120,275).

All of those guys (and about 1,300 others) should consider themselves both lucky and skilled to have successfully navigated through the minefield that is Day 1 of the Main Event. Well, lucky, at least. The lucky survivors will play Day 2a on Tuesday at high noon.

That's just about all we have for tonight from the Rio. Tomorrow, we'll get another couple thousand grinders in here to fill out the field, and it's always an exciting time when that first-place prize is announced to the masses. We'll be among those masses on Sunday, and we hope you'll join us back here as we finalize this Main Event field and begin to build the excitement through the play-down days and onward to the final table.

For now we will leave you with Lynn Gilmartin's video update, and until tomorrow, then, all that's left is goodnight!

One last bit of end-of-night drama to report, this one a big hand involving Mike Johnson and Yury Gulyy. (In fact, this one happened at super-big-stack Chris McClung's table, though he wasn't involved.) We came upon this one on the river, but full details were related to us shortly afterward.

Back-and-forthing before the flop ended with Gulyy four-betting and Johnson calling. The flop came    , and Gulyy continued with a bet of 8,000. Johnson raised to 17,000, then Gulyy appeared as though he desired to reraise again, but had only put out the calling chips and reached back, and so a call it was. The turn then brought the  , at which point Gulyy shoved his remaining 30,000 or so and Johnson quickly called.

Gulyy tabled the    and Johnson the   . There was about 110,000 in the middle, chips that appeared likely headed Johnson's way. But then came the river -- the  ! Gulyy had hit his two-outer, and ends the day with that large stack.

"Oh, I couldn't have played it any better!" said Johnson afterwards, noting that he'd likely have been among the Day 1c chip leaders had he avoided that river queen. Instead he bags up a little over 39,000.

The action throughout the last level here in the Blue Section of the Amazon Room has been incredibly tight, but finally, we have found our first century stack!

His name is Sean Picquelle, he's over on table 278, AND ... he's got more than 115,000 in chips. Huzzah!

Sean Picquelle

115,700

23,300

Danny Chamberlain opened for 1,050 in late position and Joe Cada called from the button. The blinds released and the flop came      . Chamberlain led out for 2,250 and Cada called. The turn came  , Chamberlain checked and Cada bet 2,250. Chamberlain called and the flop came  . Chamberlain checked, Cada bet 4,500 and Chamberlain check-raised to 13,500.

Cada was befuddled by the check-raise and went into the tank. He counted his stack, twice, counted out a call and then restacked his chips by denomination. He then was mumbling to himself and rechecked his cards. Cada held his cards up high and then slowly folded, seemingly unsure if his decision was correct.

Cada slipped a little down to 54,000 and Chamberlain is around 90,000.

The players at Table #48, where Theo Tran is sitting, certainly seem to be enjoying the last level of play. Almost every player at the table including Tran has a beer in front of them and they just summoned over a cocktail server to bring a round of shots for the table as well.

As they were waiting for the shots to arrive they were discussing how many players at the table are "professionals." When they asked the player in the nine-seat he said, "Well I don't have a job, but I don't make a living off poker either" which elicited laughter from his tablemates. We don't recognize anyone other than Tran at the table, which might explain how his stack has gone from 1,500 chips to 46,000 over the course of a few hours.

With the board showing       and about 20,000 in the middle, it checked to Sorel Mizzi who fired a bet of 12,000. His lone opponent went into the tank for about a minute, then finally made the call.

Mizzi paused, and his opponent showed    for trip nines, at the sight of which Mizzi mucked his cards. "I had to think," said the victor, and Mizzi nodded, acknowledging that he'd thought well.

Mizzi slips a bit but still has about 56,000 with a half-hour left to go tonight.

We caught the action on the turn of a      board. Daniel Cates was facing an all in of 12,025 from his opponent with a pre-turn pot of about 6,000.

Eventually Cates made the call and his opponent tabled   . The table waited for Cates to show his hand for about six of seven seconds before the dealer finally asked him to reveal his holdings.

"I have to show?" asked Cates. He reluctantly placed down the    which allowed the dealer to put down the   as the river. His opponent's set of sevens held up against the flush draw and he is now down to 34,000.

With the board reading     , we saw Jeff Sarwer check-call 3,000 from Mike Sowers. The   fell on the river and again Sarwer checked. Sowers bet 7,500 and after a few moments, was called by Sarwer.

Sowers tabled    for two pair, besting Sarwer's holdings.

Mike Sowers	91,000	16,000
Jeff Sarwer	22,000	2,000

And written on a UK keyboard. (God save the Queen and all that).

Bryan Pellegrino	127,000
Christina Lindley	62,500	7,500
JP Kelly	58,000	7,000
Darryll Fish	43,000	0
Daniel Negreanu	43,000	2,000
Julien Brecard	42,000	1,000
Daniel Harrington	38,000	-15,600
Antonin Teisseire	36,900	11,500
Haralabos Voulgaris	27,000	-51,000
Arnaud Mattern	17,800	5,300
Lauren Kling	17,400	-5,600