The day began with a visit from one of the living legends of the game. After Tweeting that he was not going to be playing in WSOP events this year, Doyle Brunson pleased poker fans by taking part in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship. Brunson decided to return for even more, playing in this year’s Main Event as well.
Before Texas Dolly took his seat in the field, he helped welcome the new crop of players by doing Shuffle Up and Deal honors. Additionally, the time was used to unveil a bronze bust of the Poker Hall of Famer that will be displayed on Rio property all year round.
Brunson may have claimed the days were too long for him to succeed in WSOP events, but that wasn’t the case today, as he finished with over 80,000 chips after spending a day holding court on the feature table on the ESPN stage. Brunson wasn’t the only past Main Event winner to make it through the day either. Dan Harrington survived as well, as did Chris Moneymaker, who had to rally from a short stack in order to make it to the end of play. Past Champs Scotty Nguyen and Greg Raymer were less fortunate, hitting the rail before the day concluded.
The second starting flight of the Main Event drew 1,942 players. Combine that with the 943 runners in Day 1A and you have a Main Event field of 2,885 and counting. Last year, the third and final starting flight drew over 3,400 players, so a total field size of more than 6,000 players seems well within the realm of possibility.
Brunson as well as 1,295 others bagged up chips and will be back in action on Tuesday when the field returns for Day 2B action. The player leading the way is Clement Tripodi, who is the first player so far this Main Event to end the day with over 200,000 chips. It looked as though Daniel Cates, better known by his online moniker, jungleman12, would bag up that many chips as well. Cates jumped to the top of the counts after his trip fives with an ace kicker managed to send Danny Illingworth and his trip fives with a weaker kicker to the rail, but Cates lost some steam as the night wrapped, ending with 188,425, which was good enough for third in the overall counts.
Other notables who made it through the day included Sorel Mizzi, who Tweeted about how he managed to bag up an impressive 134,100 chips despite being at a table that never lost a player, Adam Friedman (129,950), Annette Obrestad (108,750), November Niner Eoghan O'Dea (105,000), two-time bracelet winner Cliff Josephy (96,975), Scott Seiver (94,100), and Liv Boeree (93,125).
Some of the players whose Main Event runs were shorter than they had hoped include the aforementioned Nguyen and Raymer, 2008 WSOP Player of the Year Erick Lindgren, actor Brad Garrett, David Bach, MMA star Georges St Pierre, John Monnette, and last year’s runner-up, Jesse Sylvia. The young Sylvia was one of the first eliminations of the day when he flopped a set only to run into an opponent whose straight draw got there.
The surviving players from Sunday now have a day to rest as Day 1C takes their shot at the tables. This day is expected to be far and away the largest of the three starting fields, so there will certainly be plenty of action to keep track of on Monday. Be sure to stay tuned to the live updates from the floor on WSOP.com for all the breaking news.
Here are the top ten official chip counts from the end of Day 1B of the 2013 WSOP Main Event:
1. Clement Tripodi - 207,050
2. Jevon Lam - 189,250
3. Daniel Cates - 188,425
4. Robert Russ 176,650
5. Age Ravn - 162,325
6. Dan Owen - 158,900
7. Kenneth Silberstein - 152,075
8. Miguel Proulx - 150,500
9. Gianluca Rollo - 147,800
10. Robert Hehorayan - 146,100
Full lists of counts by chips, name, and tables are available on WSOP.com