Zimba WSOP Blog: Day 2A Dinner Break

Day 2 at the World Series of Poker starts to separate the contenders from the pretenders. Big stacks get bigger and the short stacks struggle to survive and gain traction. Here are the day's observations as we head to the dinner break of Day 2A along with one incredible roller coaster ride by Lee Childs.

Zimba Blog:

The long hours have began to wear on me and I plan on taking off a few hours tonight, but before I do I wanted to share some incidents, numbers and observations from Day 2A.

One thing that has really ramped up this year from previous year from my daily wanderings amongst the hundreds of tables, is an increased unease with reporters around their table. I have to credit the Partouche Tekingmac incidents of fake blogger/reporters aiding players, but I’ve found many players paranoid when I come around table to watch the action.

A new WSOP champion will be crowned in 2011 as Jonathan Duhamel bust out midway through Day 2A. He was a classy and genuine young representative for the poker world.

This WSOP Main Event has entrants from 85 countries and over the entire series from 105 countries, as a comparison the last Winter Olympics only had athletes from 82 countries.

Carter Gill’s chipstack (no player present) has blinded down to below 20k from 49k to start the day.

I happened to walk up to Scotty Nguyen's table just as he was all in. With a raise pre-flop, the flop came down J,9,X...and the money went all in. Scotty’s opponent, before calling the all in shove of Scotty, asked if Scotty had the other J. He then flipped over J,J for top set, a semi-slowroll when no hand could beat him. Scotty was a bit disgusted and dejected as he flipped over his J,9 for top two pair, walking away from the table before the turn and river were dealt.

One candidate for questionable choice of costume arrived on Day 1A in normal attire, only to return after the dinner break dressed as Snow White. One media member scoffed it off saying he had seen the guy dressed in a dress a couple weeks, it was just his thing. Well, for his Day 2A follow-up Richard Wyrick he dressed up as Wonder Woman. He has just bust out before the dinner break and now must do the walk of shame up the crowded Rio hallways.

Daniel Negreanu continues to hold court at “the mothership” featured table, after his double early to 70k, he had a rough level before the dinner break and finds himself back down to 46,200 with blinds 500/1000 after dinner. Sorel Mizzi is also at the featured table.

In a story depicting the roller coaster nature of the WSOP, Lee Childs of 2007 WSOP final table fame began the day with 8,450. He shoved his first hand of the day with A,10 under the gun that was uncalled. A few hands later he got A,K and doubled up against a player with K,Q with a flush draw on the low flop. From there he steadily built his stack throughout the day to a peak of 100k, before losing several hands to fall back to average around 75k. Then right before the dinner break he played a massive pot where his J’s were bested by 4’s that flopped a set leaving him with just 3600. He doubled his next hand with 3’s that won the race against A,J. One last all in with no call left him with 9900 at the dinner break with an ambitious agenda ahead of him after dinner if he is to make Day 3. (*late note) Childs went on a run again and finished the day around 110k for the wildest ride in a day he had ever experienced. Phil Hellmuth got moved to his table late, and after nursing a short stack all day, also went on a run to end around average stack of 80k.

Recent bustouts on Day 2A include Phil Gordon, Soi Nguyen, Andrew Robl, Gavin Smith, Shane Schleger, DJ Blanchard, Jimmy Fricke, and Jay "SEABEAST" Kinkade.

After three levels, the average chip stack is around 77k with 1203 players remaining. The blinds will move to 500/1000 with a 100 ante after dinner. The current chip leader is Aleksandr Mozhnyako with 277,100 in chips.

Author

Gosu "GosuGamers" Gamers