WSOP Event #50: Day 1 Ends With 64 Survivors

It's shootout time! Event #50 kicked off with a total of 572 players
who gathered to participate in the $1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout.
Spread across 64 tables, only the winners of each table were given
tickets for Day 2, thus earning at least $4,350 for this event. In
order to claim the title, he or she will have to survive three tables
and naturally, win the third one. Whoever manages to achieve this will
earn $194,854 and a WSOP gold bracelet.

Many notables were seen at the tables on Day 1, including Allen Cunningham, David "Chino" Rheem, Gavin Griffin, Brock Parker, Joe Sebok, Dennis Phillips, Scott Seiver, Michael Binger, Svetlana Gromenkova, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi and many more.

Jimmy
Fricke started his day quite well, coming on top of some early
encounters with Shaun Deeb. Fricke raised from the button, Deeb
three-bet from the small blind, the big blind folded and Fricke called.
The flop came , Deeb bet and Fricke called. The turn brought and this time Deeb check-folded to Fricke's bet.

The
following hand featured Erik Haakenson making a raise, Fricke three-bet
and Deeb made it four, both Fricke and Haakenson called and the action
moved to the flop of . It was checked to Deeb who bet and again both Fricke and Haakenson called. The turn brought , it was checked to Deeb who bet and this time only Fricke made the call. The river came , Fricke checked, Deeb bet and Fricke called, turning over
while Deeb mucked his hand. Fricke climbed up to 5,100 in chips at this
point and Deeb was down to 3,500. Meanwhile, Haakenson preserved his
lead at the table with about 6,200.

Despite a good start, Fricke couldn't make it through the day, as well
as J.C. Tran, Sorel Mizzi, Victor Ramdin and Shaun Deeb. Interesting
enough, while most of the tables have already lost a few players, there
was still one table at the start of Level 5 with all nine players still
in their seats. It was Scott Seiver's table at which he was battling
for the chip lead with David Plastik.

Seiver couldn't pull off a
victory there and had to leave the table, as Plastik and Cladio Rinaldi (pictured left)
engaged in a heads-up match with Rinaldi holding a roughly 3-2 chip
lead over Plastik. Eventually, it was David Plastik who managed to
secure himself the seat for the next play day.

Amongst the 64
survivors were also Jean-Robert Bellande, who finished second in the
same event last year, David Williams, Juha Hellpi, Brock Parker, Dan
Heimiller, Greg Mueller, Erik Haakenson and the winner of the last
table of the night, Mario Locicero. The second play day will bring
eight-handed tables, same as it will be on the final play day when the
champion will be determined.