Event 9 – Hurrying through Day 1

Published on 06 Jun 08 12:23 by Drakhor

The first short-handed event of the Series started with Event 9. 1,236 signed up for the action-packed Hold'em variant. Only 72 survived the first day.

The prize pool of the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em Six-Handed Event sums up to $1,687,140. The winner will receive $372,843. And the participants closed the gap to the win already on Day 1 with huge steps.

With only 72 survivors on the first day, the participants were eliminated in a hurry. After less than 4 hours of playing time, the field was already decreased to almost 400 participants. The bubble burst with rank 126.

Tomorrow, the final table will be played off, and a further 63 players will be sent to the rails. If the speed is held up, it will be a short day.

Again countless Pros at the Tables

Numerous pros lined up for the short-handed event, amongst others Bertrand 'Elky' Grospellier, Jon Friedberg, Antonio Esfandiari, James Akenhead, Erick Lindgren, John Juanda, Vanessa Selbst, Roy Winston, Andy Black, Justin Bonomo, Huck Seed, Nam Le, Jamie Gold, Alexander Kostritsyn, Men Nguye, Max Pescatori, Joe Sebok, Jennifer Tilly, David Williams.

Oops... Wrong Table

The tourney had barely started when Alex Jacob entered the Amazon Room and sat down at Table 1, Seat 1. About ten minutes later, another player joined Table 1 and had to realise that his seat was already taken – by Jacob.
The floorman was called and had to clear the situation. Luckily, Jacob had not yet been involved in a big pot and only stole the blinds once, so that he could take his actual seat on Table 6, and everybody was happy again.

Ultra-short-handed

Probably also due to the very high speed with which the players eliminated each other, the officials encouraged the staff to continue playing even when only four players were left at the table.
On one table the players protested, and the four simply stopped playing for about ten minutes. A floorman finally broke up the table.

Lots of Room for the Players

A short-handed event is always quite a challenge for the officials, as many more tables are needed. The players clearly enjoy the added freedom of leg movement though.

NBA Finale

At times it seemed the players were more interested in the NBA finale than the tournament itself. After the players folded their cards, most of them stood up and gathered in front of one of the numerous TV sets, on which the Finale was shown.
By the way, the Celtics won the first game of the "Best-of-Seven" Series with 98:88.

No complete Chip Count yet

The chip counts are still missing for now, and thus we can only offer you the top counts: