Lee Davy takes you through the news and views of Day 1C of the World Series of Poker Main Event including an appearance from Aaron Paul, the fall of Martin Jacobson and Phil Hellmuth and Phil Ivey share tables.
“Gatorade me, bitch!”
I guess Aaron Paul didn’t get my memo on showing the World Series of Poker (WSOP) staff a little more respect. You should have seen his face when the waiter told him he only had Red Bull or water. Priceless.
The greatest poker tournament in the world broke another record on Day 1C. 3,963 players escaped the malignant disease of the mundane world to huddle around the same set of dreamers. Never in the 46-year history of this bitch has there ever been a Main Event starting field containing so many devoted divas. It was like happy hour at a bar full of drunks, except this was happy 7.5 hours.
However, the final day surge of sentiment didn’t equate to exponential growth. The WSOP wouldn’t apply an airbrush to the final numbers. 6,420 entered in total, and that was a 4% drop from the 6,683 that got their asses handed to them on a plate by a handsome Swede. PokerNews head honcho Donnie Peters acting all Nostradamus when he predicted that the final number would be 10x the size of the Aussie Millions Main Event. Now you know where to go to get your lottery numbers.
Talking about numbers.
6,420 players means the total prize pool was $60,348,000. For the first time in WSOP history, 1,000 people will get paid. Their portion of the pie will be $15,000. Anyone making the final table will receive a smidgen over a million bucks, and the winner will receive $7,680,021.
There are 4,371 still retaining hopes that it will be them.
Let’s see how this bitch went down.
If you were from the UK then the only celebrity that took a seat in the Main Event was Aaron Paul. If you were from the USA then there were a few more. Comedians Ray Romano & Brad Garrett played, as did music producer Scott Vener. Then you had some big dudes that play sports that don’t make sense to me: Richard Seymour, Earl Barron and Wade Townsend exchanging their bats and balls for 15,000 chips.
There are several ways that you can get your name thrust amongst those connoisseurs. One of them is to be the idiot that gets eliminated first. Unfortunately, on this occasion, the idiot’s name fell onto the floor, got stuck to a waiters feet and was unceremoniously dragged into the pissy tiled floor of the urinal where it was swept down the drain: Ariel Celestini holding Broadway, the unnamed anti-hero had flopped a set of kings, and that was the end of that.
The second level saw the former champion Greg Merson receive a black eye from Colin Moffat. The latter putting the former all-in on A85TJ, and Merson called and mucked when he saw the AK of his opponent. That black eye turned into a decapitation one level later when he ran KK into AA.
Keith Lehr is used to playing the bad guy. The multiple WSOP bracelet winner continued to wear perfume that smelled of shit when he was responsible for the elimination of Aaron Paul.
Writers up and down the Rio ripping up very bad Breaking Bad headlines as Lehr flopped a flush, at the same time Paul flopped a set, and three streets later he was heading back to the RV. Daniel Idema followed him out of the Rio not long after, only the Canadian hopped into his hot air balloon for his ride home. Allen Kessler knocking him out AA v JJ on a low board after Idema had moved all-in in a three-bet pot.
Je Wook Oh sent Beth Shak back to her cupboard full of shoes, and Dylan Linde suffered the kind of bad beat that can create a raging inferno. Sal Di Carlo moving all-in on 8h4d3s (low turn card but can’t remember what) holding 87ss, and Linde calling with aces. The 8d on the river driving one of those cluster bombs into the heart of the RunItOnce instructor.
Former Main Event champion Jerry Yang met Joe Black. It wasn’t a nice meeting. Set over set on AQ7 made sure Yang wouldn’t be repeated the run of 2007. David Williams was also eliminated, as was Dan Heimiller after his AQ was beaten by the AJ of Rudolph Dirubbo all-in pre after a jack hit the flop. Apparently, Heimiller is still in the Rio explaining that one to a poor soul who is slowly being eaten away by the sands of time.
At the end of the level, Je Wook Oh was the chip leader, and Chino Rheem, Paul Volpe and Mark Newhouse were considering other career alternatives over on the rail.
The fourth level of action saw Rep Porter fail to hit his open-ender against the pocket kings of Ryan Teves, Eddy Sabat ran tens into queens, and former WSOP Player of the Year (POY) Frank Kassela was eliminated 77 v AA all-in pre.
Then the news rang out that we would be crowning a new world champion after Martin Jacobson was eliminated. By all accounts he moved his short stack into the middle from the small blind, holding Q2o, and was called, and beaten, by AJcc. David ‘ODB’ Baker, Mike Sexton and Noah Schwartz were also eliminated – John Gorusch took the chip lead with 200,475 chips.
Charity lovers were in mourning after the fifth level took the life of Bill Klein, and the battle hardened Kevin Boudreau was eliminated flush over flush. You may remember that Boudreau suffered a stroke in the Rio parking lot back in 2013, was diagnosed with Cerebral AVM, and has since been through a traumatic experience that none of us could comprehend. Kudos to the young man on his return – what a spirit.
And that was the end of that.
We may have lost Martin Jacobson, but there were many former champions that made it through the day: Ryan Riess (108,800), Jamie Gold (81,000), Joe Hachem (63,500), Peter Eastgate (22,100) and Phil Hellmuth (79,725) all made it through. Hellmuth in particular deserves credit after he managed to survive a table that contained the god of poker: Mr. Phil Ivey.
I mean what are the odds?
There were close to 4,000 people in the field and Hellmuth and Ivey shared spit.
I asked Aaron Paul what he thought about it all.
“Hellmuth? Ivey? Bitches!”
Top 10 Chip Counts
1st. John Gorusch – 198,100
2nd. Zarik Megerdichian – 180,400
3rd. David Peyser – 177,325
4th. James Juvancic – 166,350
5th. Michael Shanahan – 159,350
6th. Salvatore Di Carlo – 155,300
7th. Phong Than Nguyen – 153,650
8th. Timo Pfutzenreuter – 150,075
9th. Norbert Szecsi – 149,150
10th. Wade Townsend – 146,000
