Event #1: $500 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em

After a very long couple of days battle here in the Amazon Room in The Rio we have our first bracelet winner of the 2009 WSOP. We started yesterday with 866 players and made it down to eighty-one by the end of play on Day 1. Today those players returned and played down to a winner. It took nearly twelve hours, but we finally got there. Andrew Cohen was near the top of the chip counts the whole day and kept his calm at the final table, as others around him were moving up and down in chips. By the time he made it to heads up, he had a commanding lead that he managed to keep and knock his opponent out when all the chips went in. PokerNews congratulates a worthy winner.

Andrew Cohen raised it up to 45,000 from the small blind and Casey Kuhn called from the big blind before the flop came down      . A bet, a raise all in and a call, before the cards were on their backs. Cohen tabled     and was behind to Kuhn's    . The turn came   !! to see Cohen move ahead and stay there as the river came  . A cruel way to be eliminated but a great performance from our 3rd place finisher. We're heads up now.

Casey Kuhn raised preflop to 36,000 from UTG. It was passed to Jun Dulay in the small blind who reraised to 148,000. Behind them, Andrew Cohen moved all-in from the big blind and Kuhn quickly got out of the way. Dulay still had a fair amount of chips left but felt he had put too much into fold and made the call with     but was up against    . The board was           helping neither player which meant we were down to four players.

Play has resumed.

Apologies for the lack of reported hands just recently. In other circumstances this could have been down to our laziness but this time it's down to too much respect between the players. A lot of pots have been taken down with an initial raise or continuation bet, otherwise they've been checked down the whole way. There's a great atmosphere between them and they're all having fun but no one is trying to win this right now. One spectator even asked if they realized the game was indeed No Limit Holdem! Let's get some gamble on guys.

Jun Dulay made it 52,000 from the cutoff and John McAvoy reraised all in for his last 169,000. Dulay quickly called with     dominating his opponent's     both before and after the           board.

Andrew Cohen limps the button and John McAvoy makes it 55,000 from the small blind. Big blind Casey Kuhn reraises all in for 289,000 and Cohen folds. McAvoy makes the call though with     and Kuhn shows    , the latter holds on a           board. Kuhn has about 600,000 now and McAvoy down to 560,000

Paul Peterson has doubled through John McAvoy, he pushed from late position with     and found McAvoy giving him a spin with    , the board was an uneventful one coming           putting Peterson back over the 150,000 mark.

Chips instantly in the middle between Ferdinand Boleski and Bobby Rooney. Boleski:     Rooney:               board means Boleski doubles to nearly 400,000 while Rooney drops to just over 100,000

It was folded around to Sammy Porter in the cut-off who raised it up to 35,000 and after a slight dwell John McAvoy called from the button. The blinds folded before a       flop was revealed. A 125,000 continuation bet from Porter was followed by an all in from McAvoy and a quick call. Porter showed     to McAvoy's    . The   came on the turn before the   fell on the river to complete the flush draw. McAvoy scooped in the pot worth 610,000 to become big chip leader whereas Porter was left with just 60,000.