WSOP Event #37: Tuan Le Holds A Dominant Lead

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The $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo event has kicked off and even though the buy-in has been doubled since the last year, that didn't seem to create an obstacle for the 164 players who paid their entries. Only 16 players will end in the money and the first place will be awarded $431,656 in prize money.

Last year's event saw 261 entrants and a final table which included familiar faces such as Annie Duke, Steve Sung, Chris Ferguson, Alessio Isaia and Marcel Luske. Eventually, it was Sebastian Ruthenberg who claimed his first WSOP gold bracelet along with nearly $330,000.

The Event #37 kicked off with Day 1 and numerous familiar faces at the tables, including Scotty Nguyen, David Benyamine, Daniel Negreanu, Jennifer Harman, Phil Ivey, Dario Minieri, Jason Mercier, Erik Seidel, Eli Elezra, ESPN announcer Norman Chad and many more.

Mike Matusow's table began the day with the topic of discussion being Finnish player Ville Wahlbeck. The young talented player has already made a first, a second and a third place finish at the WSOP, all in $10,000 buy-in events. Matusow commented, "I don't get anywhere. I just don't win pots." Grumpy as he may be, he did get somewhere by the end of the day, as he managed to double up a few times when it was the most needed, thus securing his seat for Day 2.

The play began surprisingly slow and it took a while before the first player was busted, namely Shawn "Sheiky" Sheikhan (pictured left). He was seen making his way out of the Brasilia Room and after his departure, things got rolling and players began to fall at a more rapid pace.

The first play day encountered an interesting situation where the dealer ran out of cards. Since there are eight players at a Seven Card Stud table and 52 cards in the deck, when the burn cards, the down cards and the up cards get to the board, it can rarely happen that in a multi-way pot there won't be any cards left in the deck.

The floor was called to make a ruling on the situation at the Table 239 which had Greg Raymer, Dario Minieri, Perry Friedman, Gavin Smith and John Hanson. It was explained that in cases such as this, one community card is dealt at seventh street for all players in the hand.

Without the sharp look in his eyes and a clear mind, Negreanu found it hard to gain respect at the table and scoop the pots by firing bets. In one of such hands, Negreanu held (X)(X)(X), the "Russian" opponent had (X)(X)(X) and Matusow had (X)(X)(X). Negreanu was firing bets on every street, taunting his opponent "Come on Russian!", and both "Russian" and Matusow called all the way to the seventh street. Negreanu fired another bullet, "Russian" raised, Matusow folded and Negreanu called. The "Russian" player showed for a flush and Negreanu revealed the for trips as he mucked.

By the end of the day, only 110 players remained, including Daniel Negreanu, Mike Matusow, David Benyamine and many more top pros who will have a hard time catching the chip leader Tuan Le who holds a stack of 234,000 in chips - with his closest contender Frank Mariani being far below with just 111,300.

Here are the top 10 chip stacks entering Day 2: