October 28 2011, Chad Holloway

One of the World Poker Tour’s most prestigious and historic stops every year is the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods Resort and Casino. Past champions of this event include Howard Lederer (Season I), Hoyt Corkins (Season II), Tuan Le (Season III), Nick Schulman (Season IV), Nenad Medic (Season V), Mike Vela (Season VI), Jonathan Little (Season VII), Cornel Cimpan (Season VIII), and reigning champ, Jeff Forrest.

The first $10,000 buy-in tournament of Season X of the WPT kicked off on Thursday and drew a field of 185, including many of the aforementioned champions. Registration is open until the Day 2 begins, so that number is expected to grow. With a kind structure and a stacked field, it wasn’t surprising to see some elite poker action. Some players who were in action, and managed to survive the day, include David Williams (16,775), Lee Markholt (37,175), Dwyte Pilgrim (63,400), and Erik Seidel (69,500); however, each of them trails the Day 1 chip leader, Thomas Schreiber, who bagged up 104,000.

There were some crazy hands throughout the day as evidenced by Greg Lang’s once-in-a-lifetime feat of flopping a royal flush, holding the in a heads-up pot. Unfortunately, he didn’t get paid off because his opponent checked behind on the flop and then folded to Lang’s small turn bet.

In another intriguing hand, four players limped for 200 preflop only to have Tony Sinishtaj raise to 1,500 from the button. According to the World Poker Tour Live Update Team, three players made the call and the players saw a flop of . Action checked to Sinishtaj and he fired out 2,500. An early-position player called, and then Nikolai Yakovenko check-raised to 6,500 from middle position. Peter Polianto called from the cutoff, Sinishtaj folded, and the early-position player came along for the ride.

When the hit the turn, the early-position player and Yakovenko checked, opening the door for Polianto to bet 13,000. The early-position player called all-in for 12,000, and Yakovenko folded face up.

Showdown
Early-Position Player:
Politano:

It was an action flop as the early-position player hit a full house but was second best to Politano’s quad threes! What’s more, the river would have given Yakovenko a straight flush; instead, it was Politano who chipped up to 62,000.

Some players thrived, but others failed to survive. Among the players who fell on Day 1 were Micah Raskin, Jason Somerville, Jonathan Aguiar, John Cernuto, David Paredes, and Justin Schwartz. The last player on that list met his demise in Level 5 when an early-position player raised to 725 and Dwyte Pilgrim called from the cutoff. Schwartz responded by moving all-in for 5,850 from the button, Jason Mercier called from the small blind, and the other two players folded.

Showdown
Mercier:
Schwartz:

Schwartz was behind and even more so when the flop fell . Neither the turn nor river helped Schwartz, whose elimination came at the hands of the man many consider to be the best tournament poker player in the world. It would be hard to argue with that if Mercier can somehow add a World Poker Finals victory to his résumé.

On Friday, the remaining 141 players will return to action at 1200 EDT (1600 GMT). In the meantime, here’s a look at the top stacks at the end of Day 1:

Top 10 End of Day 1 Chip Counts

*Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour.

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October 23 2011, Chad Holloway

The 2011-2012 World Series of Poker Circuit continued on Saturday with Day 1b of the Hammond Main Event. On Friday, the Horseshoe Hammond housed a record 912 entrants for Day 1a, surpassing the 2010 Main Event’s field of 872 players. That meant the 703 Day-1b entrants were just icing on the cake, making the total field 1,615 and creating a $2,349,825 prize pool, $393,584 of which is reserved for first place. The man who finished the day with the best chance of capturing that prize was Mike Scarborough, who bagged up 324,500.

Scarborough is no stranger to poker and actually made a televised final table at the 2011 World Poker Tour Hollywood Poker Open in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Not only that, he went on to win the tournament for $273,644 after defeating a final table that included Ali Eslami, Tom Marchese, William Reynolds, and Erik Seidel. For the victory, Scarborough defeated Seidel in heads-up play.

Unfortunately, not everyone had as good a day as Scarborough. Day 1b was filled with numerous re-entries, but many found their luck hadn’t changed since Day 1a. Some players who played both flights and failed to survive include Allen Kessler, Kathy Liebert, Chris Tryba, Micah Raskin, Kyle Cartwright, Steve Verrett, Tim Vance, and last year’s winner, Kurt Jewell.

One man who did have a good day was former online pro Mark “P0ker H0” Kroon, who was eliminated on Day 1a on just the third hand, after his pocket aces were cracked by pocket kings. Re-entering the event proved a wise decision because Kroon ended up finishing with an average stack of 108,000.

Much of that stack came late in the evening when a player in middle position opened for 3,300 only to have Khang Nguyen move all-in for 33,000. Action folded around to Kroon in the big blind and he moved all-in after squeezing out his cards. The original raiser quickly got out of the way and the cards were turned up:

Showdown
Kroon:
Nguyen:

“All red,” Kroon commanded the dealer, who obliged with a flop; however, it did give Nguyen a gut-shot straight draw to a jack. The turn was a blank as far as Nguyen was concerned, and so was the river. Kroon eliminated his opponent and chipped up to around 184,000 in the process, obviously losing a bit before night’s end.

Other notables who survived the Day 1b minefield and will return on Sunday include “Captain” Tom Franklin (41,000), Eddie Blumenthal (79,500), Eric Bair (189,500), Jeff Fielder (216,500), Nadya Magnus (91,000), and Jacob Bazley (255,000).

Those players will join Paul Bianchi, who ended Day 1a as the chip leader with a staggering 358,000; as well as, notables from Day 1a like Eric Crain, Dwyte Pilgrim, Chad Brown, Josh Brikis, Mohsin Charania and Kenny Nguyen.

The 158 Day 1b survivors will join the 184 players Day 1a survivors on Sunday at 1400 CDT (1900 GMT) as the final 342 work their way past the money bubble and toward the final table.

You can follow all the action from Hammond as our Live Reporting Team brings you all the hands, action, and eliminations on the way to crowning the latest WSOP Circuit Main Event champion.

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Follow Chad Holloway on Twitter – @ChadAHolloway