WSOP 2013 Main Event Day 1C Begins
This morning marks Day 1c of the 2013 World Series of Poker Main Event, following heavy action on Saturday (Day 1a) and Sunday (Day 1b). Already, an extensive list of well known pros and celebs have been sent to the rails in the quest for the most prestigious gold in poker history. The total field size has yet to be determined, and while it’s shaping up to bust the usual 6k players, thus far it isn’t shaping up to break the current record of 8,773, set in 2006 when Jamie Gold took the bracelet.
Although Day 1a of the WSOP Main Event is generally considered to attract the least star-studded field, several big names were found at the tables. Last year’s champion, Greg Merson, was among the tables, and finished the day strong with 81k after delivering the opening speech, concluded with the traditional “shuffle up and deal”. Other notable card players joining the action on Day 1a included 2009 WSOP Champion Joe Cada, 2011 WSOP Champion Pius Heinz, 2008 Main Event runner-up Ivan Demidov, Brian Rast, Justin Bonomo and Olivier Busquet, to name a few.
By the time Day 1a came to a close, the 2013 WSOP Main Event had waved a fond farewell to proven poker pros Pius Heinz, TJ Cloutier, Soi Nguyen, Chino Rheem, Abe Mosseri and Sam Barnhart, as well as celebrated actors Jason Alexander (George Castanza, ‘Seinfeld’) and Robert Iler (AJ Soprano, ‘The Sopranos’). Evan Panesis finished the day as the top stack, ending with 190,975.
Sunday, Day 1b, saw a few more of poker’s big-wigs joining the tables, including Greg Raymer, the 2004 WSOP Champion and one of the most prolific competitors on the Heartland Poker Tour. Unfortunately for Raymer, he didn’t last long, busting out early in level three of competition, followed quickly by Scotty Nguyen two levels later. Erick Lindgren and the 2012 WSOP runner-up Jesse Sylvia also fell to the rails, along with Yuval Bronshtein, Barnard Lee, Lex Velduis, David Bach, Marco Jonson, MMA superstar George St. Pierre and television star Brad Garrett (Robert, ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’). As the day came to a close, Clement Tripodi led the pack with 207,500 chips. Daniel “Jungleman12” Cates finished close behind with 198,425.
As usual, the majority of the world’s most renowned pros waited for Day 1c to hit the felt. Among them were the WSOP bracelet record holder Phil Hellmuth (13 bracelets), one of the highest earning poker pros in the world, Phil Ivey ($14,791,952 in live tournament winnings), Canada’s most acclaimed poker pro Daniel Negreanu and 2-time WSOP bracelet winner Jason Mercier.
Although the registration numbers aren’t in yet, the field is set to top the 6,000 mark, as it has done for the last 7 years straight. 943 players joined on Day 1a, followed by 1,942 on Day 1b. There were 3,000 players registered for Day 1c well before the event was scheduled to open, leading to what should be a record number of players for Day 1c as the previous record of 3,418 is well on its way to being broken.