|
LAS VEGAS -- Seven hours into Day 2AB and the Amazon Room is beginning to look a little barren. While surviving players from both Day 1A and 1B are both in action on Tuesday, they play as if they are part of two separate tournaments until Day 3 on Thursday. As a result, the Amazon Room has cleared out its largest Orange section with a significant portion of the small Day 1A field hitting the rail during play on Tuesday. Of the 505 players that began the day in Amazon, only about 320 remain. Scattered throughout the tables in Amazon are three former champions -- Chris Moneymaker, Ryan Riess and Johnny Chan. Moneymaker has been treading water all day, never able to build a stack while seated at the feature table area. Riess eclipsed the six-figure mark before dinner and sits casually at his table with a just a few on his rail. He doesn't seem to mind. After wearing a black T-shirt with a bright gold emblem on Day 1A, Chan has gone for a more casual, hidden approach on Tuesday. He is sporting a hoodie and doing his best to remain inconspicuous during Day 2AB action. The only problem is that he also has 100,000 stacked in front of him, and keeping a low profile with those chips is going to be hard. Martin Jacobson began the day as the chip leader and still holds strong with 260,000 in chips. Also scattered at tables throughout the Day 1 contingent is 2013 WSOP main event runner-up Jay Farber, Antoio Esfandiari, David Bach, Mukul Pahuja Brian Hastings, Kyle Cartwright, Annette Obrestad and Ted Forrest. Jacob Zalewski, seated with Esfandiari, has nearly quadrupled his stack on the day. The Day 1B contestants have also been reduced to one room. With the Pavilion emptied, the Brasilia room is nearly filled to capacity and seems to have most of the chip leaders from the day. Joe Kuether, looking for his sixth cash of the 2014 WSOP, is one of five people with more than 300,000 chips. Brasilia also features some big stacks belonging to Marvin Rettenmaier, Kevin MacPhee, Dan Kelly and Erik Seidel. Small Blinds: Comedian Kevin Pollak remains in contention and successfully made it through six hours of competition against Phil Galfond, Michael Binger and Matt Vengrin. That table broke shortly after dinner. Pollak does some impersonations of Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth here. … NASCAR's Jason White has just less than 100,000 in chips. … Ryan Riess's dad and girlfriend have pulled up chairs along the defending champion's rail. … Greg Merson was eliminated during the first level on Tuesday. … The two players that lead the WSOP Player of the Year race, Brandon Shack-Harris and George Danzer, both fell on Tuesday. With plenty of points for first to the main event champion, along with 10 more bracelet events in WSOP-APAC, the race is far from over. … Michael Binger told me he's happy to be out of the poker world. "I take the subway to work," he said of his "normal" lifestyle. Binger lives in Brooklyn, still pursuing his passion of science. … The WSOP asked first-timers to stand up and be recognized at their table Tuesday to show a similarity to how they could all be like Riess a year ago. Some players stood up. Some players didn't. Some criticized them for making that request, but there's no guarantee that anyone who stood up was actually a first-timer. It's a game of information, so wouldn't you want to take advantage there? … Johnny Chan is taking a quick walk through the Amazon room, listening to something and dancing. Yes, a dancing Johnny Chan. I have no idea what he's listening to, but it's pumping up the two-time champ. … The WSOP had a record-setting 82,360 entries in 65 events. It awarded the largest prize pool in WSOP history: $225,584,873. &133; A total of 107 countries are represented in the 2014 WSOP. … Of the main event participants, 4.2 percent were women. It was 4.7 percent in 2013. … The average age in the main event was 39.2. There average age last year was 38.1.
|
