WSOP Event #57: The Main Event Day 1A

The 2009 WSOP $10,000 No Limit Hold'em Main Event has a really good structure that favours good players. Instead of the 150 big blinds starting stacks, the Main Event starts with 300, and the levels in the Main Event are two hours long, opposed to the standard one hour duration. So a really deep structure that leaves room for a lot of plays post flop.

A little over 1,100 players showed up on the first day. Usually the first day isn't the most popular day to play, traditionally the fourth day attracts the most players. Amongst the 1,100 players were three of Team PokerStrategy.com's players: Trader, Nazgul and Pokernoob. Allanon, who was also supposed to start the day, has been feeling really ill for the last couple of days and is recovering in bed to get into the action on Day 1D.

Other PokerStrategy.com members that made their appereance were: Thorsten77, Blumenkind,   Tonding, Psychobenny and Schnibl0r. Many well-known players also showed up on the first play day, namely Isaac Barcon, Allen Cunningham, Roland DeWolfe, Pieter de Korver, Vitaly Lunkin, Jason Mercier and many more.

The day didn't start very well for Pokernoob. He was catching cards but couldn't win any of them. After losing with AA, KK, AK twice and TT he took quite some stack damage. However, due to the deep structure of the event, Pokernoob was still well in with 200bb left.

Then the first winning hand came when Pokernoob was again dealt in a short period of time. He raised it up to 600 from MP when the blinds were at 100-200. The button flat called and the blinds went out. Flop came down and Pokernoob made a continuation bet of 900. The button quickly bumped it up to 2,000 and Pokernoob made the call. Turn brought the , putting a 4 card flush out there. Pokernoob checked and the button bet 2,500. After a short moment Pokernoob decided to raise it up to 6,000 total and the button went out.

Not long afterwards and still in the same level, Pokernoob got dealt in the small blind. Two players limped before him and he made it 1,300 to go. The big blind and both limpers made the call and it was four-way action to the flop. Flop brought and Pokernoob led out 3,500. The big blind was the only one that made the call and it was heads-up on the turn, which was a . Pokernoob checked it to the big blind that quickly bet 6,000. After a short moment of deliberation Pokernoob made the call to see the river. A came on the river and Pokernoob went all-in for his last 13,000 chips. The clock was called quickly on the big blind and then he made a quick call with pocket jacks. Pokernoob scooped a massive pot.

The 2007 Champion Jerry Yang was also at Pokernoob's table which was surrounded by cameras constantly following the action of the former champion. He seemed to be enjoying it greatly, as he was playing nearly half of his hands. Pokernoob got involved once in a hand with Jerry Yang when he picked up pocket kings during the 50-100 blind level. A raise from early position to 250, got re-raised by Pokernoob to 800 from the button. Jerry Yang cold called 800 from the small blind and the original raiser came along into the pot. Flop brought and both players checked to Pokernoob who fired then 1,500 into the pot. His bet got called by both players and the turn brought a . All three players checked and the river paired the board with a . Jerry Yang fired out 7,000 and the original pre-flop raiser quickly went out. After a while Pokernoob also laid his hand down and gave the pot to Jerry Yang.

The last big hand played by Pokernoob was against Matt "Hoss_TBF_" Hawrilenko, a feared online Fixed Limit player who recently took down the 6-max $5,000 buy-in Event #56. Hoss raised from the hijack to 900, when the blinds were 150-300 and Pokernoob called from the BB with . The flop came down and Pokernoob donked 1,600 into a 2,175 pot. Hoss made the call and turn brought a , probably not helping any player. The action went accordingly, check, check. On the river another diamond, the came, thus completing the flush. Pokernoob bet around 8,000 into a 5,275 pot, forcing Hoss in the tank. After he had enough of the tank, he decided to muck his hand and Pokernoob scooped another nice pot at the end of the day. Making his total stack around 42,000. He will return on Day 2A which will be on the 7th of July.

Most of the PokerStrategy.com members that started the day are still in the tournament. One of the early casualties today, however, was Thorsten77 who recently managed to finish 8th in the 6-max $5,000 buy-in event for a little more than $100,000. Quite early on, he found himself with pocket aces and the pot was built quite nicely pre-flop. Then the flop came and Thorsten77 stacked off against pocket threes.

Psychobenny, who is still in, doesn't have much chips left. He left Day 1A with a measly 7,000 in chips. Though it's not over for him as Day 2 will start with 200-400-50.

Nazgul will go into day 2, with an almost average stack of 42,000. Joined by Trader who will start the day with about 52,000 in chips.

Blumenkind is the best of the PokerStrategy members, going into Day 2 with a little over 60,000 in chips. Right before the end of the day, he lost a big hand with pocket kings against AK. Had he won that, he would've started on Day 2 with a little over 120,000 chips. In overall, not a bad first play day for all of the PokerStrategy.com's players.

Peter PeterBee Buermann had a good tournament day and was seen ending the play day in 5th place with 117,400 chips. Congratulations to him and best of luck in the upcoming Day 2!

Here are the top 10 chip stacks after Day 1A:

World Series Of Poker Event #57 Day 1A Standings
Rank	Name	Chips
1st	Eric Cloutier	150,750
2nd	Redmond Lee	134,275
3rd	Jean Docquier	122,755
4th	Marcucci Gianluca	118,000
5th	Peter PeterBee Buermann	117,400
6th	Ebrahim Mourshaki	116,025
7th	Balazs Botond	113,000
8th	Alexander Grishchuk	111,875
9th	Jimmie Guinther	110,425
10th	Arthur Rhea	109,275