Living The Dream

The World Series of Poker Day 1c of the Main Event delivered the excitement electricity that the previous two days seemed to lack. The hallways were bursting with people, close to 1,700 players registered, and poker's biggest friend in Washington, Barney Frank, opened the day with a short speech and delivered the iconic "Shuffle up and deal!"

The field was stocked with some of poker's biggest names including Daniel Negreanu, Scotty Nguyen, and Jeffrey Lisandro all chose to start today. Registering early is the wisest decision, otherwise late entrants are all seated together. One table of late entrants included Jean-Robert Belande, Chino Rheem, Liv Boeree, Jacobo Fernandez and Andrew "good2cu" Robl.

Not to be outdone by anyone, Phil Hellmuth made his Hellmuthian entrance dressed as Julius Caesar. He wore long fur stoals, a chest plate, a golden wreath crown and a cape. He was flocked by ten body-painted muses, a trumpeteer and 50 models in toga-like dresses as he made is grand entrance into the secondary feature table in the Amazon room.

Making his first WSOP appearance is Kent Senter. He has been diagnosed with a rare type of incurable cancer, Multiple Myeloma, better known as Jim Valvano disease, and through the help of Bluff Magazine and PokerStars Senter is able to fulfill a lifelong dream. His hope is to be able to take care of his family and donate to the Jimmy V foundation.

Making runs towards the top of the leaderboard are recent bracelet winners Marc Naalden and Lisandro. John Monnette is charging as well, he took 2nd to Phil Ivey in No Limit 2-7 Lowball, took 5th in the World Championship Omaha HiLo 8-or-Better, and has 3 other cashes this series. David Singer and Terrence Chan are dangerous and inside the top 15.

Several top pros couldn't gain any traction and were eliminated by the dinner break. Negreanu, Evelyn Ng, David "The Maven" Chicotsky and Chino Rheem. Annie Duke, Jamie Gold and Paul Wasicka have each been suffering with a short stack.

Estimated Top Chip Counts for Day 1c after Level 3

  1. Tsai Chen - 96,000
  2. Yan Chen - 85,000
  3. Marc Naalden - 84,000
  4. Igor Borukhov - 79,000
  5. Jeffrey Lisandro - 78,000
  6. Andy "BKiCe" Seth - 76,000
  7. Frank Kassela - 72,000
  8. Paul Magriel - 68,700
  9. Eddie Ochana - 67,500
  10. David Singer - 67,000