2013 World Series of Poker

Day 1 of Event #27 is in the books, and leading the remaining 181 players is a gentleman who refused to submit his name. He wrote a fake name on his bag, which contained 122,375 chips, and behind him is Calvin Anderson. Anderson bagged 79,425 chips, and received much of his stack from Cylus Watson in a big hand in Level 6. Anderson flopped top two-pair with king-jack against Watson who held aces, the money went in the middle, and Anderson’s hand held up.

This year’s mixed max event, which is nine-handed on Day 1, six-handed on Day 2, and heads-up from 32 players down, attracted 593 players – nearly 200 more players than 2012, but that event was a $5,000 buy-in. The total prize pool for Event #27 is $1,618,000, and the top 68 players are guaranteed a minimum of $4,694. Everyone who makes the heads-up portion of the event will take home $10,360, and the winner will earn $372,387 and the coveted gold bracelet.

Over 400 players were eliminated on Day 1, including Kathy Liebert, Vanessa Selbst, Dario Minieri, Phil Hellmuth, Darren Elias, Jennifer Tilly, Chris Brammer, Frank Kassela, Ben Yu, Jason Somerville, Paul Volpe, Ben Sulsky, Brian Rast, Joe Serock, Ryan Olisar, and David Pham. Pham, who is coming off of a final table, lost a race against Jason Wheeler holding ace-king of diamonds against Wheeler’s black tens. Pham flopped a pair of aces, but Wheeler flopped a set of tens, and held when the turn brought a brick.

While some players fell, others prospered. Dominik Nitsche, Simon Charette, Ognjen Sekularac, and Ana Marquez all climbed up the charts throughout the day. Charette won a massive pot off of Ryan Olisar when he made a flush with king-queen suited against Olisar’s kings, and Marquez made her own flush to win a big pot in Level 6.

The survivors will return tomorrow at 2 p.m. where they will be six handed. Be sure to return for our live coverage straight from the tournament floor. For now, good night from Las Vegas.

The players have played their last three hands, and are now bagging and tagging for the evening.

Five people took to a flop of and Andre Akkari bet out 2,600. Next to act was Prahlad Friedman. He raised to 10,000. The others folded and Akkari went all in. Friedman snap called and the cards were flipped.

Friedman:
Akkari:

A cooler indeed! The turn and river both were close to an eight but the and did not give Friedman his one out. With that pot Friedman shipped quite a few and went down to 14,000 while Akkari went to 30,700.

Action began with a player raising to 1,100. In the next seat Tony Dunst moved all in over the top for his last 8,225. Action folded back around to the original raiser who put in the chips for a call.

Dunst:
Raiser:

The board ran out granting Dunst the double up and a bunch more chips to work with.

Board:

Two players checked, a third tossed out 1,500, and Ognjen Sekularac called. The first player who checked raised to 4,300, and the action folded to Sekularac who moved all in. The player called.

Sekularac:
Opponent:

The completed the board, and the two chopped the pot. Sekularac has been on the up-and-up today however, and now sits with 60,000 chips.

Action folded to Nick Schulman in the small blind where he moved all in before the flop. Brent Hanks thought about it for a bit before making the call with a covering stack.

Schulman:
Hanks:

The flop was a disaster for Schulman when it fell leaving him drawing to just one out. The turn was the and the river was the and Schulman was sent to the rail, but not before paying massage girl which he did just before he left.

Action was unusually quiet at the Bradon Cantu Show table as no one was talking. Even so, Cantu raised to 1,500 and was called by Darryll Fish and Kevin Saul, both of whom were in position.

On the flop of Cantu and Fish checked to Saul who stabbed at the pot for 2,700. Only Cantu called.

The turn was the and both players checked.

On the river , Cantu bet out 4,100. Saul went into the tank and looked as if he was about to muck his hand, but then grabbed chips and reorganized one of his stacks before tossing in a chip signifying a call.

"Queen high," Cantu said.

Cantu went to muck his hand, but kept it intact, as Saul refused to turn over his cards. At which point Cantu asked, "Are you really going to play like this Kevin?"

"I just want to know if you have queen jack with a spade," Saul said. "Are we about to break?" Saul asked a floor as he was bringing over racks. The floor informed him that they were in fact breaking the table. "Alright," he said, finally turning over his for just king high. Cantu finally mucked his hands and the men racked up their chips to move to a new table.