WSOP Event #52: The Triple Chance

Event #52, which is a triple chance tournament, has a little different structure than the majority of other WSOP events. Here you start with 3,000 in chips, but you get two re-buy chips, each worth an additional 3,000, which you can use at any moment of your choosing during the first three levels of play.

A little bit more information about the structure, event #52 and Vegas in general you can find in the interview between RobbieV and petjep.

At the end of Day 1, only 149 players remain out of the 854 that sat down originally. Unfortunately, both Nazgul and Allanon85 had to leave the field along with the majority and won't make their appearance tomorrow at 2 PM in the Amazon room.

Notable names that are still playing for the first prize of $506,000 are: Antonio Esfandiari, who is currently 5th in chips. Isaac Baron, also known as MrMenlo online and is holding the 10th biggest chip stack at the start of day 2. He is followed by Jeff Lisandro, winner of three bracelets already this year, in 11th place. Another famous name, not necessarily for poker, is Patrick Bruel. This French star seems to be holding his own quite well and is standing 16th in the chip count. In this event 81 places are paid out.

Allanon (on the right) could never really take off today. He played some small hands where he managed to chip up and get close to double his starting stack, but then a crucial hand came by:

"I had  on the button, the blinds were 100/200 and two people limp in before me. I raised it up to 900 and both limpers called. The pot was now 3,000, when the flop came rainbow. Both limpers check to me and I check it back. The turn brought an , which now made a flushdraw possible. First limper checked again, but second limper fired 1,600 into the pot. I obviously called and the first limper went out. On the river the pot was 6,200 and a came off. First limper bet 3,200 into me and I had to call and he showed ."

Allanon took quite a bit of stack damage there. And when the blinds went up he found himself with in the cut-off, when a player limped again. Now with a shorter stack, he isolated the player and all others went out. The flop came down , giving Allanon second pair and a backdoor flushdraw. The limper checked and Allanon bet 1,000 into the 1,700 pot. He then got raised to 2,500 and he calls. The turn came a , giving Allanon a flush draw along with his pair of nines. His opponent pushed him all-in and Allanon made the call, only to see his opponent was holding pocket nines. It was all over for Allanon today.

Nazgul (pictured left) had a flying start today. During the first three levels he was busy stacking up his piles of chips.

His first double up occurred during the 50/100 blind level when he picked up . Nazgul raised it up pre-flop to 250 and the cut off made the call. Flop came down , giving Nazgul top two pair. He lead out 425 and the cut off makes the call. Turn came down a . Nazgul lead 825 into the pot and gets re-raised to 2,325 by the button. Nazgul decided to 3 bet him and raised it once more, up to 5,000. He got called and the river brings a , busting all flush draws. Nazgul jammed in the remainder of his stack, about 4k, and found himself called by .

One orbit later Nazgul picked up himself in middle position and he opened. Three players, including both blinds, made the call. When the flop hit the table with , Nazgul decided to continuation bet it. All players, except for the small blind, went out. The turn was a , making a flush draw possible. Nazgul barrelled it again, and again he was called by the small blind. The river card was a and the action went check check. Nazgul flipped over AK to see the small blind flip over AJ.

When the blinds were 100/200 Nazgul picked up on the button. The action before him was a raise from UTG that was called by UTG+1. The flop came , giving Nazgul the low end of the straight. UTG made a continuation bet of 1,000 into a 1,500 pot, which forced UTG+1 to go out of the hand. Nazgul re-raised it up to 2,450 and UTG made the call. Turn was a , giving no flush draws at all. UTG checks to Nazgul and he bet 4,000 into the pot. After some tanking UTG goes all in for 16,000 more, which was 1.5 times average. Nazgul tanks and tanks, and then talks UTG into showing his hand if he folds. Nazgul folded and UTG showed for the nut straight.

The last hand of the day for Nazgul was when he picked up pocket deuces. He had about a 22,000 stack at this point, with blinds 100-200 and 25 ante. He opens on the hijack to 475 and a tight player on the cut off, who had Nazgul covered, re-raised it to 1250. After all other players went out Nazgul decided to flat. A perfect flop came when the and another rolled off. Nazgul lead 1,325 into the tight player and he again re-raised him, this time up to 4,325. Nazgul jammed it in to disguise his hand and the cut off snaps it off with pocket queens. When Nazgul turned his hand over the player on the cut off realised things weren't looking good for him. However, the turn brought another and just to seal the deal, the rolled off on the river. Making the cut off player cheer and pass around some high fives around the table. Unfortunately this also meant the elimination of our player.

All of Team PokerStrategy.com's players will return on Tuesday for event #55, the $5,000 6-max tournament.

Here are the top 10 chip stacks at the end of Day 1:

World Series Of Poker Event #52 Standings
Rank	Name	Chips
1st	James Daly	DNR*
2nd	Timothy Horan	149,000
3rd	Harris Pavlou	137,300
4th	Karfa Holt	130,600
5th	Antonio Esfandiari	127,900
6th	David Bornstein	120,800
7th	Blake Cahail	120,800
8th	Michiel Brummelhuis	120,000
9th	Tracy Scala	119,200
10th	Isaac Baron	114,000