2009 WSOP, Events 11, 12: Oppenheim Heads $10K Mixed, Stemper Leads $2K NLHE
$10,000 World Championship Mixed Event #12, Day 1 – Oppenheim Jumps to Early Lead
Event #12, $10,000 World Championship Mixed Event, featured a rotation of eight different games and a field of 194 of the toughest poker players in the world. The games included deuce-to-seven triple draw (two players per hand sat out), limit hold'em, Omaha hi/lo, razz, stud, stud hi/lo, no-limit hold'em and pot-limit Omaha. With a rotation like that, it was no surprise to see names like Doyle Brunson, Barry Greenstein, Jennifer Harman, Thor Hansen, and Jeff Madsen in the field. David Oppenheim proved his mixed-game prowess when he finished Day 1 with the chip lead, finishing up at 143,000 in chips. Daniel Negreanu ended the day in second chip position on 121,300, with Jimmy Fricke and Eric Froehlich as the only other players who finished in six figures with 108,200 and 100,100 respectively.
Rounding out the field were Sorel Mizzi, who brought along his copy of Doyle Brunson’s Super System 2 to the table as a reference, and Phil Ivey, who took his seat in the tournament after winning his sixth WSOP bracelet in Event #8, No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven Draw.
Daniel Alaei was among the early eliminations, busting before the first break when he got it all in on a pot-limit Omaha hand with a board of 8♥5♣3♥2♣. Alaei check-called on every street with A♣Q♣Q♥J♥ for a pair of queens with the nut club draw, only to find himself facing A♠A♥5♠4♥ for a pair of aces with the nut heart draw. The 8♦ came on the river, and Alaei's queens weren't enough to keep him in the rotation.
Other notable eliminations on Day 1 included Greg Raymer, Nikolay Evdakov, Freddy Deeb, and Phil Ivey. After joining the event late, Ivey found himself pot-committed in a razz hand against David Bach and another opponent. Ivey raised on third street with the A♥ in the door and both opponents called. He picked up the 5♣ on fourth street and got two callers again. The Q♠ on fifth street was a brick for Ivey, but he was committed and called off his last few chips when David Bach bet out. Ivey bricked out and Bach showed a 7-6-5-4-2 for the win. Ivey certainly had a decent day, picking up a shiny new WSOP bracelet and an innumerable number of prop bets to soothe the pain of busting from Event #12.
Mike “The Mouth” Matusow was card dead for much of the day, as anyone within earshot quickly learned. His fortunes appeared to turn late on Day 1 when he doubled through David “The Dragon” Pham, but it was just another cruel joke of the fates at Matusow's expense as The Dragon roared back to silence The Mouth a few hands later. Matusow got it all in during a huge stud hand with aces up by fourth street. Pham had a spade flush draw on third street, but caught running kings for a final hand of (K♠9♠)8♠8♦K♣ (K♦). Pham's kings full of eights was enough to bust Matusow's two pair and send him to the rail just before the end of Day 1.
128 players made it through the rotations of Day 1, including chip leader David Oppenheim. Other notable survivors included 2009 bracelet winner Steve Sung, David Pham, Huck Seed, Vanessa Rousso, Gavin Griffin, Scotty Nguyen, and Katja Thater. Join PokerNews at 2PM local time for all the live updates as the $10,000 World Championship Mixed Event continues,
$2,000 No-Limit Hold’em Event #11, Day 1 – Stemper Stomps Over Field
At the same time that 194 players ponied up $10,000 for the Mixed World Championship, not quite ten times as many players spent one-fifth the cash to take a shot at a different WSOP bracelet in Event #11, $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em. The total field was 1,646 players, with top pros like Brandon Cantu, Kathy Liebert, Nicolas Levi, Alan Smurfit and Chris Bjorin among the competitors. By the end of Day 1, only 252 players remained, with Patrick Stemper taking the chip lead late in the day to end with 165,000.
With a no-limit format and a huge field, many pros were among the early eliminations. Humberto Brenes was one early bustout when he got it all in on the turn holding pocket jacks on a 9-9-8-9 board. Brenes' nine full of jacks was no good when his opponent tabled aces, and “The Shark” went off in search of different prey. 2008 Main Event champ Peter Eastgate, Liv Boeree, and Chris Ferguson all headed to the rail early on Day 1. Ferguson moved all in preflop with 8♣8♥, and found one opponent with K♦Q♦. The board ran out 6♥J♥9♦5♠10♥ to give his opponent the nut straight, and Ferguson headed over to try his hand at the $10,000 Mixed Event. He fared significantly better in that event, finishing Day 1 in the middle of the pack.
As the evening wore on, the bustouts started coming in droves. Shane “shaniac” Schleger was a late elimination when his K♦Q♣ was no good on the Q♦8♥4♦ board. His opponent showed A♥Q♥, and when no king came on the turn or river, Schleger was done. Liya Gerasimova was another late bustout when she ran pocket queens into aces and didn't improve. Jay “Seabeast” Kinkade moved in with K♠6♠ and found action from Eric Neal, who was dominating with K♦Q♦ preflop. The flop came down J♦10♦8♦, and Kinkade was drawing dead. Other Day 1 eliminations included Joe Sebok, 2008 November Nine player Kelly Kim, Shaun Deeb, and rap superstar Nelly.
Veterans T.J. Cloutier, Tom Franklin, and Phil Hellmuth all made it through Day 1, as did recent first-time bracelet winner Jason Mercier and Champions' Invitational winner Tom McEvoy. They were all chasing Patrick Stemper, who finished the day just ahead of Scott Hall for the chip lead. Join PokerNews at 2PM local time for all the live updates as the bubble bursts early on Day 2.
