2010 World Series of Poker Day 40: Day 1C of Main Event Wraps Up With Sauriol and Chan in the Lead
When chips were bagged at the end of the night after Day 1c, the largest Day 1 of the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event so far, Mathieu Sauriol led the pack, ending the night with a stack of 169,900. Snapping close at his heels is former WSOP Main Event winner Johnny Chan, who ended the night with 163,700, ahead of most of the 1,600+ players who made it out of Day 1C with chips.
Chan, who has been dormant through most of the 2010 WSOP, chipped up before the final level of play when he turned his K♦8♦ into a rivered flush to beat an opponents flopped trip sevens to bring his stack up to 165,000. Chan, will go into Day 2 as one of the combined chip leaders for sure and will try to continue his run toward poker history.
Team PokerStars ProLex Veldhuis was nearly out of the tournament early in the day but was able to get some action after a flopped full house holding pocket fours on a 4♣6♥6♠ board versus an opponent's 6♦7♦. The opposing player missed his draw for a better full house, and the pot went to Veldhuis to increase his stack to about 40,000. Before the night was over, Veldhuis was able to continue his climb and bagged about 91,925.
Also returing to big stacks on Day 2 will be Lauren Kling, Barney Boatman, Michael Reed and Robert Mizrachi. Defending WSOP Main Event champion and Team PokerStars pro Joe Cada will return to a mid-sized stack, as will Daniel Negreanu and Patrik Antonius. Dennis Phillips and David Oppenheim who all managed to hang on until the end with chips, but who will have some work to do if they hope to make any noise on Day 2.
Those unfortunate players who will not be back for Day 2 include Chad Brown, Alex Gomes, Tom Dwan, Neil Channing, Chau Giang, and Jeff Madsen. Former Main Event champions Jerry Yang and Huck Seed were also eliminated during the day.
Phil Hellmuth, arrived with the fanfare of a full-on spectacle. He came out dressed as an MMA fighter, had a group of dancers performing, and had famed MMA announcer Bruce Buffer lead him into the Rio. Unfortunately though, the day ended for Hellmuth with a knockout, so the 11-time WSOP champion will walk away from this WSOP with no new jewelry.
Thursday will be the final day of Day 1 play. Players will sit down for Day 1d at 12 p.m. and things are sure to play out like it did over the last three days.
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