In the Swing
Saturday, May 30, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
Today is the first day that really feels like the World Series of Poker. The Casino Employees’ tournament started all by it’s lonesome on Wednesday, the $40,000 Anniversary Hold-Em event drew an elite field, but a small one (201 players), and while the $1,500 Omaha/8 tournament field was the biggest in that particular game’s history, it wasn’t enough to fill up the room. But with 3,000 players stampeding into the Rio for today’s $1,000 Stimulus event, NOW the room was filled up. And not just the Amazon Room–there’s a lot going on over in Brasilia and Miranda as well. And chances are the Rio is going to be this packed until we get to Day 3 or 4 of the Main Event, more than a month from now.
There won’t be a bracelet awarded today, the last day for a long time when that won’t happen. The $40,000 No-Limit event is playing down to the final table and it’s attracted a massive crowd along the rail and atop ESPN Final Table Stage:
The $1,500 Omaha/8 event is down to 153 players, with 90 getting paid. One player no longer in the field is UB pro Brandon Cantu, who was knocked out about 90 minutes ago when he committed the last of his chips with pocket kings and was rivered by a player who made a straight. Such is life when it comes to Omaha:
But three UB pros are still in contention in the Omaha/8 tournament. Phil Hellmuth is once again seated up against the rail, where he’s drawn quite a crowd. Though that may in part be due to the fact that he’s seated just to the right of Erick Lindgren and Freddy Deeb:
According to the PokerNews chip counts Phil is one of the shorter stacks left with just 7,900 (and the blinds set up rise to 800-1,500). Owner of a more robust pile of chips is Hollywood Dave Stann, who has around 40,000 after a ping-pongy start to the day.
And after trouncing Norman Chad in this afternoon’s lemonade-stand competition, Annie Duke returned to her day job and has built up a 45,000 stack. Annie’s WSOP bracelet was in Omaha/8, so history could be repeating itself. That said, there’s still a long, long, long way to go before we start talking about bracelets.
Crowded rooms, money bubbles, superstars vying for a spot at a televised final table, more bad-beat stories than you can shut your ears to…yup, the 2009 World Series of Poker is in full swing.
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Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, Annie Duke, Brandon Cantu, Erick Lindgren, freddy deeb, Phil Hellmuth, world series of poker, WSOP
