Day One WSOP Re-Cap

The WSOP Main Event is my favorite poker event and I’ve only been in Vegas once when it was going on – back in the mid 80s when it was still a “small” event at Binions.

I thought it might be fun to tell you who’s in and who’s out after Day 1 – which was actually 4 days.

The best news for us eons.com pokerholics is Susie Isaacs is still in – and doing very well. She plays tomorrow in the second half of day 2. She has 67K chips – a very respectable chip count. The final number of entries was 6,358 with a total prize pool of $59,784,954. First prize will be over $8million. Not as much as Jamie Gold won in 2006 when the online poker industry flooded the WSOP but up above Joe Hachem in 2005.

And we have our government to thank for the “dip” in entries; now that it are making it hard (the government calls it illegal; I call it restraint of trade. Tomatos; tomatoes) for banks to move money in and out of gambling site.

First of all my thanks to WSOP Official Site:

view link

I have been following their blow-by-blow; um, I mean play-by-play and any “Color commentary” is from their site and is copyrighted by them.


Still in:

Former Main Event Champs: Joe Hachem, Scotty Nguyen, Chris Moneymaker, Tom McEvoy, Carlos Mortenson, Robert Varkonyi, Huck Seed, Dan Harrington,.

Other WSOP Event Bracelet Winners: Susie Isaacs, Daniel Negreanu, Ted Forrest, Todd Brunson, Allen Cunningham, Hoyt Corkins, John Hennigan. There may be others; but I don’t know all the winners by name.

Other notables: Barry Greenstein, Robert Mizrachi, Evelyn Ng, Shirley Williams (mother of David Williams), Adam Schoenfield, Rhett Butler, Paul Wasicka, John Cernuto, Joe Sebok, Lee Watkinson, Pamela Brunson (daughter of the Godfather and sister of Todd), Humberto "The Shark" Brenes, Steve Dannenman (runner-up to Hachem in 2005), Phil Gordon (Celebrity Poker and one of the best players to never win a bracelet - think Phil Mickelson be fore he won The Masters), Bill Gazes, Chip Jett, Gus Hnasen, Leif Force (wonder if he's had a makeover?), Gavin "I'll bet on anything" Smith, Joel Fiscbein and Mimi Tran.

My apologies to those I should have recognized and didn’t.

But the list of those knocked out the first day is staggering: Matt Jansen – first player eliminated – 23 minutes into day 1a, Andy Black, Joe Awada, Mark Vos, Mike Sexton – WPT Commentator, Liz Lieu, David Grey, The Grinder – Mike "The Grinder" Mizrachi, Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson (both with 10 bracelets), Mel Judah, Amarillo Slim Preston, John D’Agostino, Dewey Tomko, Eli Elezra, Josh Arieh, Marco Traniello (married to Jennifer Harman, Chris Reslock, Erik Seidel (who won his 8th bracelet in event 54 – NL 2-7 lo-ball), Isabelle Mercier, Kathy Liebert, Scott Fischman, Allyn Jaffrey Shulman (Poker Player Magazine), Jennifer Harman, Paul Sexton, Annie Duke and Howard Lederer, David Williams, Sam Farha, Aaron Kanter, Sam Grizzle, John Juanda, Jeff Lisandro, T.J. Cloutier, Joe Cassidy, Ted Lawson, Kristy Gazes, Al Krux, Amir Vahedi, Rafe Furst, Clonie Gowen, Jennifer Tilly (made my husband cry), Men “The Master” Nguyen, Andy Bloch, Mike “The Mouth” Matasow, “Gentleman” John Gale, Phil Ivey, Greg Raymer, Jose Canseco (should have taken his steroids), Nelly, the Grammy Winner (now that's a shocker), Phil “The Unabomber” Laak, Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari, Freddy Deeb, Dutch Boyd, Eric Lingren, Brandi Hawbaker (the Stripper – not a nickname; an occupation), Young Phan, Chip Reese, David Benyamine, Tuan Le, Jamie Gold (2007 Main Event Winner), Paul Darden, Steve Zolotow, Cyndy Violette, Robert Williamson III, and Phil Hellmuth (after winning his eleventh bracelet this year). Five former Main Event Winners were eliminated on Day 1.