Zimba Blog:
Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi suffered the same fate as the previous day's "shuffle up and deal" announcer and TV featured table player Doyle Brunson, by heading home midway through Day 1B. Mizrachi lost the majority of his stack on one hand earlier with trips and was called when he pushed with K,10 but was outraced by 9's.
Earlier today, I had overlooked another couple with Full Tilt connections in the form of Allen Cunningham and his long time girlfriend Melissa Hayden. Hayden joined Patrik Antonius and Mike Matusow in receiving a coveted The Micros t-shirts from animator and writer John Wray.
Jean Robert Bellande ran well at his table sitting on 62k at the final break in addition to winning the credit card roulette at dinner with Ben Lamb. Don't feel bad for the 26-year old pro, as he is having the World Series of a lifetime. Despite falling to as low as 17k during level one, he has been smashing players all day and now finds himself the big chip leader with well over 200k in chips, likely to beat the Day1A's chip lead of 209,500 by Fred Berger. Ben Lamb's WSOP run has him sitting in second in the Player of the Year standings behind Phil Hellmuth having won over $1.5 million in earnings after winning his first gold bracelet, a second, a twelfth, and 8th in the $50k Player's Championship. Lamb has only played in eight events, but has been chip leader at some point in five of them. Lamb's success this year isn't a fluke, In 2009, Lamb finished an in 14th in the Main Event and in 2007, he finished deep again in 156th.
Day 1B's entrants numbers came in at 978, which combined with Day 1A's numbers puts the Main Event 28% behind last year. The WSOP's director Ty Stewart is still predicting around 6,500 players will take part (compared to 7,319 last year), which will require well over 2,000 players to play each of the Saturday and Sunday Day 1's.
In the unfinished business department, Event #56 and #57, both of whom his their hard cap and needed to play down from 3-handed and heads-up to determine a winner did so. Hasan Anter won Event #56, the final $1,500 NLHE Championship, outlasting a field of 3,389 players to earn his first ever shiny gold bracelet and $778k while being the first winner this year to win his final hand with a royal flush. He had a fun quote after winning "Now my parents will stop yelling at me to study."
In Event #57, the $5k PLO Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Championship, Nick Binger outlasted David Bach heads-up after outlasting 350 other players for the $397k first prize and his first bracelet. When asked in a post win interview if this win determined once and for all that he was better than his brother Michael, who finished third overall in the 2006 WSOP Main Event. Nick's response was an unequivocal "Yes."
Back to the Main Event, there is one fun story to share. At the end of level four, two brightly colored posters were hoisted by some women on the rail. They were rooting on a player named Logan Deen. Deen just turned 21, and guess what his parents got for him, that's right, they bought him into the Main Event. That's some birthday present.
Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi suffered the same fate as the previous day's "shuffle up and deal" announcer and TV featured table player Doyle Brunson, by heading home midway through Day 1B. Mizrachi lost the majority of his stack on one hand earlier with trips and was called when he pushed with K,10 but was outraced by 9's.
Earlier today, I had overlooked another couple with Full Tilt connections in the form of Allen Cunningham and his long time girlfriend Melissa Hayden. Hayden joined Patrik Antonius and Mike Matusow in receiving a coveted The Micros t-shirts from animator and writer John Wray.
Jean Robert Bellande ran well at his table sitting on 62k at the final break in addition to winning the credit card roulette at dinner with Ben Lamb. Don't feel bad for the 26-year old pro, as he is having the World Series of a lifetime. Despite falling to as low as 17k during level one, he has been smashing players all day and now finds himself the big chip leader with well over 200k in chips, likely to beat the Day1A's chip lead of 209,500 by Fred Berger. Ben Lamb's WSOP run has him sitting in second in the Player of the Year standings behind Phil Hellmuth having won over $1.5 million in earnings after winning his first gold bracelet, a second, a twelfth, and 8th in the $50k Player's Championship. Lamb has only played in eight events, but has been chip leader at some point in five of them. Lamb's success this year isn't a fluke, In 2009, Lamb finished an in 14th in the Main Event and in 2007, he finished deep again in 156th.
Day 1B's entrants numbers came in at 978, which combined with Day 1A's numbers puts the Main Event 28% behind last year. The WSOP's director Ty Stewart is still predicting around 6,500 players will take part (compared to 7,319 last year), which will require well over 2,000 players to play each of the Saturday and Sunday Day 1's.
In the unfinished business department, Event #56 and #57, both of whom his their hard cap and needed to play down from 3-handed and heads-up to determine a winner did so. Hasan Anter won Event #56, the final $1,500 NLHE Championship, outlasting a field of 3,389 players to earn his first ever shiny gold bracelet and $778k while being the first winner this year to win his final hand with a royal flush. He had a fun quote after winning "Now my parents will stop yelling at me to study."
In Event #57, the $5k PLO Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Championship, Nick Binger outlasted David Bach heads-up after outlasting 350 other players for the $397k first prize and his first bracelet. When asked in a post win interview if this win determined once and for all that he was better than his brother Michael, who finished third overall in the 2006 WSOP Main Event. Nick's response was an unequivocal "Yes."
Back to the Main Event, there is one fun story to share. At the end of level four, two brightly colored posters were hoisted by some women on the rail. They were rooting on a player named Logan Deen. Deen just turned 21, and guess what his parents got for him, that's right, they bought him into the Main Event. That's some birthday present.
First Zimba Blog: I Want That Feeling, One Time!
Second Zimba Blog: Sunday Poker Diatribe
Third Zimba Blog: Thoughts and Experiences with Cheating in Poker
Fourth Zimba Blog: The Myth of Money Won in Poker
Fifth Zimba Blog: Poker Super Powers - The Cloak of Invincibility
Sixth Zimba Blog: The Good News About The Portuguese Prodigy
Seventh Zimba Blog: Finding Your Place In Poker
Eighth Zimba Blog: Poker Empathy
Ninth Zimba Blog: Poker - A Global Game
Tenth Zimba Blog: 10 Things I Learned From My First Week Not Playing Poker
Eleventh Zimba Blog: The Blame Game
Twelfth Zimba Blog: Commentary On FSG 218 Pros List
Thirteenth Zimba Blog: Poker News or Perspective?
Fourteenth Zimba Blog: WSOP Memories Redux
Fifteenth Zimba Blog: WSOP Memories Redux, pt. 2
Sixteenth Zimba Blog: Grandfathered In
Seventeenth Zimba Blog: Full Tilt Poker and the $60 Million Cost of Business
Eighteenth Zimba Blog: WSOP Bracelet - What is it worth anyways?
Nineteenth Zimba Blog: Down the Rabbit Hole
Twentieth Zimba Blog: Full Tilt Poker Misplayed Their Hand
Twenty-first Zimba Blog: U.S. Poker: 180 Days and Degrees
Twenty-second Zimba Blog: Women's Event: Life EV Trumps Poker EV
Twenty-third Zimba Blog: Zimba WSOP Blog: The Calm Before The Storm
Twenty-fourth Zimba Blog: Zimba WSOP Blog: Day 1A
Twenty-fifth Zimba Blog: Zimba WSOP Blog: Day 1A Late Night Rail
Twenty-sixth Zimba Blog: Zimba WSOP Blog: Day 1B Early Musings
