WSOP Event #31: Day One Comes To An End

A total of 770 entrants set out to reach day two of this $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. Event, and while known players like Katja Thater, Andy Black, Annie Duke, Barry Greenstein, Chad Brown and Vanessa Rousso will come back for more tomorrow, a lot of participants had to take an early leave.

Event #27 runner-up Brett Richey was one of the early casualties of the days as he got the remainder of his stack in with . While the board showed , his T-high straight was no good against the opponent's J-high straight with XX.

Gavin Smith and Markus Golser also took their leave from the tournament area when they were eliminated almost simultaneously. Minutes later, Jason Newitt was busted in a hand of Omaha-8 when he got it in with A24X on a board - with top pair and low-draw. David Singer made the call with for flush draw, middle pair and a low-draw of his own. When turn and river came down , he scooped the entire pot and Newitt was out.
As the blinds increased, the tables started breaking down faster and faster. In a matter of 40 minutes, 11 tables were broken up - the victims included the likes of Chau Giang and Todd Brunson, who busted in a three-way all-in of Razz - his T5XXX was no good against the opponents 75XXX.

As the night came down, more big names had to take their leave. Mike Matusow (pictured left), for instance, was all-in from the small blind with a decent against Filipe Pacheco's . When the flop showed , things were all but set and the left Matusow drawing dead.

Another interesting hand occured when Phil Ivey's stack was eliminated. Even though he had managed to almost double up after eliminating another short stack, he was too occupied with his second event. His final hand made fives full of aces - which, of course, isn't what you want in a game of Razz - and he was sent... nowhere, because he wasn't even there to begin with.

Daniel Negreanu and Jason Mercier were the unlucky players to bust just minutes before the end of day one. The former had been crippled and was forced to move all-in with on the flop; surprisingly he was actually ahead when he was called by . The on the turn was promising enough, but the ended another harsh day for Negreanu.

Day 2 will see 220 players returning to their seats and only 72 of them will end in the money. Here are the top 10 chip stacks after Day 1:

World Series Of Poker Event #31 Standings
Rank	Name	Chips
1st	Sebastian Sabic	72,700
2nd	Eric Kurtzman	57,000
3rd	Marco Traniello	55,000
4th	Jim Silveira	54,300
5th	Andrew Black	51,400
6th	Doug Saab	43,300
7th	William Buckley	42,300
8th	Vito Barone	41,500
9th	Tianxiong Fu	40,300
10th	Jean Gaspard	36,100