Over in the Pavilion, poor Sam Trickett can hardly speak due a cold he is carrying. But despite his lack of voice he is still amassing chips as this following hand demonstrates.
Trickett was seated in the big blind, facing a barrage of limpers, when he raised to 200. The player under the gun made the call as did one more player, and the three of them headed to the flop.
Flop:
Trickett bet 400, the player under the gun raised to 1,000, the third player in the hand folded and Trickett made the call.
Turn:
Checkity-check
River:
Trickett made a bet of 2,000 and his opponent mucked his hand.
With such a big field the pros will be rubbing their hands in anticipation of some soft spots. Not so, for the poor souls who have landed on Table 24.
Seat 1
Tom Middleton
Seat 2
Kenny Hallaert
Seat 6
Kevin MacPhee
Seat 9
Eric Baldwin
It is MacPhee who has the majority of the chips in the early stages and here he is in action: -
MacPhee made it 75 to play from early position before Eric Baldwin three-bet to 200 in late position. MacPhee made the call and the pair shared a flop of which was checked through. The turn card was the and MacPhee fired out a bet of 225 which Baldwin raised to 550. Back to MacPhee and he took his time before increasing the pressure on Baldwin with a raise to 1,750. Baldwin took the hint and folded his hand and the dealer brushed the chips towards MacPhee.
We just caught the action on a board when two players checked to Andrew Lichtenberger. He threw out 1,625 and got called by the player in the small blind. The third player folded and Lichtenberger tabled for a flopped set. His opponent flashed and threw his top two pair in the muck.
Playing in a WSOP event is a dream come true for most of the population but it can also be a nightmare!
James Young has just eliminated 2010 WSOP Player of the Year, Frank Kassela, early in level one. Young was holding aces, and Kassela held kings, and that was all she wrote.
Young
Kassela
Board:
A dream start for Young who has doubled up to 9,000.
Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu is starting action next to the most successful female player in the game. We are of course talking about WSOP bracelet winner Kathy Liebert. Both Negreanu and Liebert are in their seats and raring to go but where is the dealer?
The dealer made a complete hash of the first hand of the day and he was immediately pulled from the tournament floor and sent for some extra tuition. It's good to see that the eyeballs of the tournament floor are doing their job right from the off.
Tom Marchese has a great big smile on his face and who can blame him. The WSOP schedule can be a pressure cooker for all professional players and a good start to the campaign is just the ticket to release some much needed steam. Marchese comes into this event having won $1,308,405 in the recent WPT Super High Roller, and can relax as he starts his WSOP schedule. Here he is in action:
The player in the cutoff limped into the pot and Marchese and the big blind both checked. The flop was and Marchese decided to take the initiative with a bet of 50. The big blind made the call before a raise from the cutoff forced both blinds to lay down their hands.
The players are widely spread across the Brasilia, Pavillion and Amazon Room and these are some of the first we ran into. Today's field is already up to 1,876, but with registration still open that number will rise quickly!