WSOP Event #43: Thomas And Simon At The Top After 2 Days

After the event for the ladies, the seniors have also found something
for them - the WSOP Seniors $1,000 No Limit Hold'em Championship. As
expected, many top notch veterans of poker were seen at the tables,
including Amarillo Slim Preston who is the oldest living WSOP Main
Event Champ with 80 years under his belt, thus far.

Day 1 was quite different from the opening day of other events, as the
players were quite satisfied with playing small ball poker. Crazy
plays, three betting before and after the flop, all of that was
replaced by limped pots and flat calls. There was also much less table
talk compared to the other events with such a large field.

Bruce Buffer commented, "I'm happy. I can ride this all the way to the final table." He also added, "You know what's nice? There are no internet warriors in the field."
While the "internet warriors" were not troubling them, some of the
seniors had problems of a bit different nature.

In one of the hands, a
player wandered off somewhere in his mind and the dealer had to notify
him that it was his turn. The player mucked his hand and apologized,
while the player next to him joked, "Don't worry about him. It was just a senior moment."

Besides the tables, many familiar faces were also seen on the rail.
Greg Raymer was walking around in search for a friend who was most
likely still in the tournament. Despite his search, Raymer found time
to joke with his fans, adding that he still has at least five more
years to go  before he can take part in the seniors event.

"I'm sure it's fun, but if I have my choice, I'd probably rather
play something like the $10,000 PLO. I probably have a better long-term
shot of winning a bracelet in an event like that as opposed to beating
2,700 players."

All in all, Day 1 went by in a slow and steady pace which was still
sharp enough to cut the field down to 397 players. Some of the players
who couldn't make it into the next play day were Amarillo Slim Preston,
Humberto Brenes, John Cernuto, Michael Craig, Eddy Scharf and the current PPA chairman Al D'Amato.

Meanwhile, Charles Simon managed to grab the chip lead in the the last
minutes of play on Day 1. A player moved all-in for 10,000 and Simon
called, showing pocket nines while his opponent held A-6 offsuit. The
board came J-9-4-6-9 to give Simon quads and a nice stack of 77,000 in chips.

The play continued on Day 2 in a relatively same pace and it wasn't
long before the bubble was burst. Both Mark Dolan and Charles Glorioso
were eliminated on the bubble, thus sharing 270th place and walking
away with $960 each.

The dinner break was closing in and Charles Simon was still in the chip
lead, by then holding a stack of 235,000. His closest challengers were
Dan Delatorre (185,000), Mitch Garshofsky (135,000) and Conrad Granath
(130,000). Simon stumbled a bit after the dinner and dropped down to
190,000.

On a flop of ,
a player in early position moved all-in for his last 42,700 and Simon
decided to make the call even though he wasn't quite happy about it.
Simon turned over for king-high and his opponent showed for top pair. The turn brought but no miracle king came on the river, as the came to the board, thus giving the pot to Simon's opponent.

The seniors might not be as ferocious as the young guns on the
internet, but they can certainly make some noise when needed. Table 63
was outraged with the fact that Day 2 was going to be played until 3
a.m. or the final table has been reached, which are the normal WSOP Day 2
conditions.

Being seniors, the players regarded this rule as unfair since they
would have to play 11 hours. The floor staff eventually decided to let
seniors off the hook and finish the day at the end of the current
level, which had only four hands left to go.

Tom Thomas managed to take the chip lead away from Charles Simon and
will enter Day 3 with a stack of 917,000 in chip. Following him close
behind is Simon with 626,000 and Scott Bullet with 541,000. These three players will lead the total of 28 survivors into the third play day.