WSOP Event #55: The Last Non-Hold'em Event

WSOP Event #55 kicked off with a field of 257 players which included many well known faces: Chris Fergunson, David Sklansky, Daniel Negreanu and Mueller Howard Lederer. Terrance Chan, Allen Kessler, Thor Hansen, Steve Zolotov, Nikolay Edvakov and David Singer were ucky enough to be seated next to unknown players. The most dangerous table was occupied by Erick Lindgren, Gavin Smith and Chino Rheem.

Chino Rheem participated in several pots right from the start. After calling bets on each street, he mucked his first hand that he played, when the winner showed 86432. Half an hour later, he took down a pot with Gavin Smith (pictured left). Chino won by catching his 4 on a final draw and correctly saying "Number two" to the better. The table showed 76432.

Aggression paid off to Steve Wong in a four handed pot. He limped into the pot first to act and later called two bets. He drew one card on the first draw, two on the second draw and one again on the final draw. He called Daniel Alaei's bets on every street but not the last one where he made a raise and all three opponents folded.
Just after Max Pescatori was down to 1,500 chips, 76 low in the next hand put him back in the competition. He got three bets before the draw and on the second draw Pescatori went all in for the last 200 chips. He drew only one card on the second draw and after his two opponents checked at the end, he showed 76532. His stack tripled to 4,500 chips.

Shannon Elizabeth (pictured right) was quickly out. Her T7 on the last draw was not even close to her opponent's 76 low. It was in a blinds battle where Elizabeth was the better in the small blind. Two opponents drew two cards each on the first draw. She drew one and she bet again. One of opponents folded but the other raised and Elizabeth was all in with her last hand in Event #55.

With 76 Robert Williamson had more luck than Gioi Luong. In a three handed pot Luong showed 76542 but Williamson made a better 76, winning with 76532. After drawing one card on the final draw he came over Luong's bet with two bets. Nam Le, who was the first to bet out in that hand, folded his hand and Williamson showed his lucky 76. However he was soon out; after being down with chips he tried to defend his big blind. He drew two cards all way and paired with a last card making 85442, which made him to lose to 98753.
After Yuegi Zhu raised from the cut-off his opponent drew two cards on the first and the second draw, calling Zhu's bets all the way. At the end Zhu showed 33742 in disbelief but he was even more surprised when his opponent was not able to beat the pair of threes and mucked his cards.

Greg Mueller was slipping down with his stack after his 86 went into 85. He put a bet and was called by only one player. They both drew one card each. His opponent led out and Mueller called twice before turning over his 85432. The winning hand was 85432.

The field of players who were already out by the end of the night counted many pros, including Bill Chen, Todd Brunson, Mike Sexton, David Singer, Kelly Kim (pictured left) and Chino Rheem, who was typed as the favourite to win.

Here are top ten at the end of Day 1 of the WSOP Event #55:

World Series Of Poker Event #55 Standings
Rank	Name	Chips
1st	Adam Ewenstein	71,800
2nd	Mike Peltekci	65,100
3rd	Rick Fuller	55,200
4th	Terance Jennings	54,100
5th	Jacobo Fernandez	53,900
6th	Jasper Lee	46,500
7th	Blair Rodman	60,000
8th	Masayoshi Tanaka	46,400
9th	Kris Lord	42,800
10th	Tuan Le	42,000