After eight levels of play, Day 1 came to completion for Event No. 7: $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball. When registration closed, a total of 291 entrants had paid their way into the tournament. After the final hands were played, only about a third of them remained, cutting the field size by a good portion.
What's good about this year's event is that the field was a good amount bigger this year as compared to last year. A bigger prizepool was created and the notables came out in full force to start another quest for a gold bracelet. Some of those included in the field today were Mike Matusow, Phil Ivey, Justin "BoostedJ" Smith, Daniel Negreanu, Gavin Smith, Richard Toth, Billy Baxter and Steve Sung. All of those failed to make it to the end of the day.
On the other side of the spectrum were Allen Kessler, Hoyt Corkins and Greg Mueller. All had great days on the felt and built some big stacks by day's end. Corkins finished with what looks to be the top stack, bagging up 63,400 chips. Jameson Painter may not be a big name in the poker world, but he came away with 55,200 chips at the end of the day and sits towards the top of the pack.
Play resumes tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. local time right back here in the Amazon room at the Rio. PokerNews will be on hand to bring you all the live updates from the felt as we move towards another crowning of a champion.
Vincent van der Fluit was knocked down pretty low by Barry Greenstein a few hands ago and was now just eliminated by Allen Kessler. By knocking out van der Fluit, Kessler pumped his stack up to 53,000 chips.
Barry Greenstein and Vincent van der Fluit both drew one card before Greenstein fired a bet. van der Fluit made the call. Greenstein stood pat and then van der Fluit drew one. Green fired again and van der Fluit called.
Greenstein stood pat on the last draw and van der Fluit drew another card. Both players then checked and Greenstein tabled the winner with the . He's back up to 22,000 while van der Fluit dropped to just 3,000 chips.
The tournament clock has reached ten minutes left in the level and the floor staff has announced that there will be six more hands for each table to play tonight.
John Monnette check-called after the second draw against one opponent and then drew one card. His opponent also drew one card. After checking what he picked up, Monnette fired a bet. His opponent peeled back his drawn card and then made the call. Monnette tabled the and his opponent mucked. Monnette's now up to 32,000 chips.
Justin Smith was all in for 3,200 before the draw. Both he and his opponent drew two cards on the first draw and one card on the second draw.
Smith turned over the and announced he was pat. His opponent drew one card on the final draw, flipping over the . Smith spread out the rest of his hand, , to win the pot and move to about 7,000.
There were 291 entrants for Event No. 7 here at the 2010 World Series of Poker, creating a prizepool of $669,300. Last year, a lesser 258 entrants ponied up the buy-in and Abe Mosseri took home the gold and the $165,513 first-place prize. With more entrants and a larger prizepool this time around, first place is worth some more pocket change - $180,730. The top 30 spots will be paid out with a min-cash earning you $4,798. Here's a look at the payouts.
Jeff Lisandro raised from the hijack seat and was called by the player in the cutoff. Barry Greenstein three-bet on the button and the blinds folded. Lisandro and the player in the cutoff called and all three players drew two cards.
Each checked, again all drawing two cards. Lisandro bet and both players called. Each drew one on the final draw and Lisandro checked. The player in the cutoff followed suit, as did Greenstein.
Lisandro tabled and neither opponent could defeat it.