Doyle and Todd Brunson. Barry Greenstein and Joe Sebok. Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer.
It appears Day 1B is a day of twos.
The second of four Day 1s, began with two-time Main Event winner Doyle Brunson announcing the start of the day with the traditional "Shuffle up and deal." Afterward he took his seat at the second feature table.
All play on Saturday is taking place in the Amazon Room as the field was smaller than the day before when tables were set up in other tournament rooms.
That field included Brunson's son Todd, seeking his second WSOP bracelet. It also included another father and (step)son team was that of Greenstein and Sebok. One more coincidental pairings was that of Moneymaker and Raymer, the 2003 and 2004 Main Event Champions, respectively, who were seated a few tables from each other.
Moneymaker, however, was eliminated more than halfway through the second level. He moved all in preflop for his last 8,000 of 30,000 with , but his opponent Joe Villacci called with two black aces. With Raymer sweating the board, which came down , Moneymaker, the man many hold most responsible for popularity of poker in the last 10 years, was out.
Other former world champions who began their quest for their second Main Event bracelet Saturday include Amarillo Slim (1972), Jim Bechtel (1993) and Carlos Mortensen (2001).
Other notable players who began their quest for the Main Event bracelet include Erik Seidel, who has eight bracelets, three-time bracelet winner Mike Matusow and David "The Dragon" Pham, who has two bracelets. Online poker stars Shaun Deeb and Aurangzeb "Ozzie87" Sheikh also started on Day 1B.
The first elimination of the day came five minutes into play when Kim Sherlin moved his stack all in on the turn with two pair, to find himself drawing to a full house against Dave D'Alesandro's flopped straight.
Before cards were in the air, WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack took a moment to celelbrate the Fourth of July. Although there was no bracelet ceremony in the morning, "The Star-Spangled Banner" was played in recognition of Independence Day.