Only 17 players remain at the end of the first day of the $5,000 no-limit 2-7 lowball draw event. Tony G was eliminated this past hour by Freddy Deeb when he went all-in before the draw and Deeb called. Tony G stayed pat with a 10-7, and Deeb held a seven draw and ended up making a 9-7 to send Tony G to the rail in 18th place.
Rise of the Sheik
Shawn Sheikhan raised a number of times only to have Barry Greenstein and Jeff Lisandro come over the top of him. He kept folding until the following pot came down. Sheikhan raised to $20,000 and Lisandro once again raised to $90,000. Sheikhan quickly went all-in and Lisandro called just as rapidly. Both players stayed pat and Sheikhan slammed his 9-8 onto the table. Lisandro had a 10-9, and doubled Sheikhan up in the roughly $300,000 pot. Shortly afterwards Greenstein bet all of his $5,000 orange chips, roughly $100,000. Sheikhan called and his hand held, putting him in the chip lead with more than $400,000.
Play will resume tomorrow at 2 p.m., so make sure to check back tomorrow for all the action here at Cardplayer.com.
Players took a short break after the previous level to color up the black $100 chips. At the very end of the previous level Noel Furlong and Eli Elezra were eliminated. Michael Binger shared a similar fate, running into Chad Brown's wheel early in the level and hitting the rail. With Binger's elimination there were only 21 players left, and they consolidated onto the final three tables.
Table 1
Andrew Black
Erik Seidel
Freddy Deeb
Johnny Chan
Tony G
Howard Lederer
Chip Reese
Table 2
Fabrice Soulier
Chad Brown
Tom Schneider
Allen Cunningham
Chris Ferguson
Todd Brunson
Table 3
Thor Hansen
Barry Greenstein
Shawn Sheikhan
Jeff Lisandro
Eliminations
Erik Seidel raised to $15,000 and Johnny Chan moved all-in. Seidel called, and the two players who got heads up for the 1988 main event championship were once again butting heads. This time Seidel came out victorious. He drew one, while Chan stayed pat with a jack. Seidel was drawing to a nine but made a ten, which was still good enough to send Chan packing. Though Seidel's mind was surely just on the hand and the current tournament, some part of him must have gotten some satisfaction from taking out Chan, who had so famously trapped him for the title. Howard Lederer was also eliminated this round, sent to the rail in 19th place by Tony G.
Play is set to continue until 2 a.m., so make sure to check back for one last update tonight here at Cardplayer.com.
Mike Wattel went all-in and was called by Allen Cunningham, who stayed pat with a 9-7. Wattel was drawing to an eight, but he failed to improve and mucked his hand before he left the table. Freddy Deeb raised to $10,000 and Sherkhan Farnood went all-in for $59,000 total. It folded around to Deeb, who called and drew one. Farnood stood pat with a 10-9. Deeb drew one card and held 8-6-5-3. He picked up a four, and his 8-6 sent Farnood to the rail. Deeb, who was very short last level, grew to well above $100,000 this level. Men "The Master" Nguyen was also eliminated this level.
Barry Greenstein went all-in for $22,100 and Allen Cunningham called, saying, "I need a card." Greenstein said, "I need to think." He decided to stand pat with a J-8, and Allen paired up, showing his 6-6 before mucking his hand. Chip Reese went all-in and was called, and both players stood pat. Reese revealed a J-9-5, while his opponent held J-9-8, and Reese doubled up.
Only 24 players remained on four tables, which are all very stacked.
Table 1
Howard Lederer
Chad Brown
Freddy Deeb
Michael Binger
Table 2
Barry Greenstein
Fabrice Soulier
Shawn Sheikhan
Allen Cunningham
Jeffry Lisandro
Table 3
Tony G
Erik Seidel
Andrew Black
Johnny Chan
Eli Elezra
Table 4
Chip Reese
Thor Hansen
Noel Furlong
Tom Schneider
Chris Ferguson
Todd Brunson
Notable Chip Counts
Erick Lindgren lost a gigantic pot to Fabrice Soulier, with Soulier being dealt a pat 7-6-5-3-2 and Lindgren holding an 8-5-4-3-2. Lindgren was later eliminated by Michael Binger, who called his all-in of $9,400 before the draw. Both drew one card, with Binger throwing away a king. Lindgren was drawing at a nine and made a 10-9. Binger was drawing lower and caught, making a 8-7 and eliminating Lindgren.
Photo Finish
Howard Lederer took down a decent sized pot with an opponent, but just barely. Both players held 10-8-7-5, but Lederer's two beat out his opponents three for the best hand.
Jack vs. Jack
Gavin Smith raised to $6,000 with around $18,000 behind. Action folded to John Juanda, who after a few moments went all-in. Smith also went into the for a minute before making the call. Juanda broke and drew one, while Smith stood pat with a J-8. Juanda picked up a jack , making a J-7 and sending Smith to the rail.
Only 33 players remain, so make sure to check back for more updates as the tension builds here at Cardplayer.com.
78 players entered this $5,000 World Championship No-Limit Draw 2-7 Lowball rebuy event. If it were not for the 226 rebuys, the prize pool would be rather tame for the World Series of Poker. As it is more than $1,476,000 was pooled together, with first place paying $539,835. Apart from the winner only six other players will cash in this event. The money is still quite a few eliminations away with 43 players remaining, but the final table could arrive rather quickly if the pace of eliminations remains as it was the first hour back from dinner.
Elimination Extravaganza
Defending champion Daniel Alaei was sent to the rail by recent H.O.R.S.E. champ Freddy Deeb when his J-7 ran into Deeb's 9-8. Some other big names hit the rail as well, including Tom McEvoy, Ted Forrest, Lyle Berman and Phil Hellmuth. Berman was all-in and called by Fabrice Soulier before the draw. He dropped an ace and drew one, while Soulier stood pat. Soulier revealed a 10-8 low as Berman squeezed out his card. It couldn't beat a ten, and Berman hit the rail after he mucked his hand. Hellmuth was all-in for $12,500 and called by Bob Bright. Hellmuth was drawing at an eight and took one card. Unfortunately for him he drew a queen, which couldn't beat Bright's 10-6 and Hellmuth was elminated.
Make sure to check back for more hourly updates and the Pro Blog of Michael Binger here at Cardplayer.com.
The players are going on dinner break at 7:30 and will return to resume play at 9:00pm.
Daniel Negreanu continued his winning ways at his table, much to the displeasure of Minh Ly. Negreanu raised preflop to $5,000, Ly re-raised to $12,000, and Negreanu called. Negreanu drew one while Ly stood pat. Negreanu bet $20,000 and Ly called, Negreanu then showed a perfect 8 low and Ly was crippled and was eliminated a few hands later.
Also going down in this level were David Grey courtesy of Ted Forrest's 9-7.
About 60 players remain. The official number of entrants has not yet been released, but there were originally about 78-85 players.
Doyle Brunson was crippled after he stood pat against Phil Hellmuth all-in bet, only to have Hellmuth draw one card to make a nine-low to break his ten. Soon after Brunson was busted.
David Williams managed to double up through Billy Baxter with an atrocious A-J low. Williams told Baxter he just need to avoid a pair and he would take it down, and Baxter made him sweat exposing his cards one at a time to show 10-8-3-2, but just as he reached the last card, he mucked and Williams took the pot. It proved to be too little too late, as Williams drew one card to hit a J-9 low, but his opponent managed to draw three to hit a 10 low to beat him.
Thor Hansen definitely found the right time for a wheel. Thor raised to $2,000, Daniel Alaei re-raised to $8,000, Freddy Deeb flat called, Hansen moved in for $9,000 more, Alaei re-raised $25,000 more, and Deeb folded. As he knocked the table Hansen asked, "Are you pat?" Alaei then reluctantly showed the 10 as he drew one. Hansen then announced that he had a wheel, and Alaei quickly mucked.
Minh Ly had some fun at Phil Hellmuth's expense. Hellmuth raised to $2,000 from early position, and then half-heartedly encouraged Ly, the last to act, to move in on him. Ly promptly did just that and Hellmuth quickly folded. Ly then proceeded to flip over his stellar starting cards: 8-8-2-2-2.
Only a few minutes after the rebuy period ended, alot of the smiles and friendly conversation flew right out the window. The tournament directors are still going table to table and stamping each player's registration ticket with their number of rebuys, and each time that stamp clicks the players' faces get a little more sullen, and a tad more withdrawn.
Daniel Negreanu, Chad Brown, and Erick Lindgren are among the chip leaders so far with just above or around $50,000. The eliminations will most likely crop up in the next level.
The official numbers are still being tabulated, we will announce them as soon as they are released.
Notable Chip Counts
Daniel Negreanu
75,000
Jeffrey Lisandro
60,000
Chip Reese
60,000
Chad Brown
55,000
Phil Hellmuth
50,000
David Grey
41,000
Tony G
40,000
Todd Brunson
40,000
Howard Lederer
40,000
Erick Lindgren
39,000
Berry Johnston
38,000
Ted Forrest
30,000
Freddy Deeb
30,000
Barry Greenstein
30,000
Allen Cunningham
26,400
Eli Elezra
24,000
Billy Baxter
24,000
Johnny Chan
15,000
Tom Schneider
10,000
Thor Hansen
10,000
Steve Zolotow
10,000
Sherkhan Farnood
10,000
Sean 'Sheiky' Sheikhan
10,000
Scotty Nguyen
10,000
Michael Binger
10,000
Miami John Cernuto
10,000
Men 'The Master' Nguyen
10,000
Max Pescatori
10,000
Lyle Berman
10,000
John Juanda
10,000
Huckleberry Seed
10,000
Gavin Smith
10,000
Erik Seidel
10,000
Dewey Tomko
10,000
David Williams
10,000
Chris Ferguson
10,000
Captain Tom Franklin
10,000
Bruno Fitoussi
10,000
Andy Bloch
10,000
Andy Black
10,000
Mickey Appleman
2,000
Wed Jul 04 15:10:00 -0700 2007
What Of Phil?
With all this talk about players arriving late, where in the Amazon Room was Phil Hellmuth? Hellmuth had preregistered for the event a few days ago, so his chip stack had been blinded down to almost nothing. Hellmuth arrrived during the break between the second and third levels, and was greeted with a stack of $1,100 down from $10,000. Hellmuth immediately met with the tournament directors to discuss, but eventually Hellmuth took his seat next to Doyle Brunson, and began to light-heartedly discuss the snafu. Hellmuth immediately asked Daniel Negreanu about the details of who had constructed the structure for this event. Negreanu assured him that he personally had constructed revised structures for use next year. Hellmuth then began to playfully needle Howard Lederer on his hand in setting the blind structures. Lederer simply shot back, "You want all the tournaments to be $5-$10 for the first four hours so you can show up late and miss nothing." It was quietly pointed out also that the unplanned break this tournament took, actually saved Hellmuth from completely missing the entire tournament. Hellmuth would have been completely blinded out in the second level, but because the players stopped play, he was able to get to his chips before he lost them all. Hellmuth then moved all in on his first hand, Don Zewin reraised to isolate him, and got his wish. Hellmuth showed 8-5-3-2-A, as he dropped the Ace to draw a 7.
Hellmuth would soon be reaching for his rebuy though. Hellmuth found himself all in with a ten while Negreanu was drawing one card to a eight low with a straight draw. Hellmuth tabled his hand as Negreanu sweated the dealt card. Hellmuth simply implored, "Don' make it a three-across of diamonds. Negreanu then happily announced that its was in fact a three-across of diamonds and he turned over the 7 of diamonds, and Hellmuth reached his for his rebuy.
Another thing that the tournament director's announced was the ruling that says if a player sits down, and there is a problem with their chips, they must bring this to the attention of the floor before they play hei
Wed Jul 04 14:03:00 -0700 2007
Play Halted
The tournament directors have called an impromptu ten-minute break while a large disagreement has spread throughout the Deuce-To-Seven tournament field.
Being that rebuys are allowed for the first three levels, registration is being held open until that rebuy period is over. Players who have yet to arrive have their chipstack's already on the tables, being blinded and anted down. Many players arrived late at today's event so some tables were playing three-handed for quite a while.
The players began to grumble as some players arrived over an hour late and were greeted by a severly-depleted stack. Those players that registered late felt that they should not have been blinded down. Then the players who had been in their seat from the beginning (and paying blinds and antes) felt that if their was no penalty for coming late, then everyone would have done it.
The argument reached a head when one table had halted play for several mintues trying to get an official ruling, and then the adjacent tables players saw that they were not playing, and decided to stop playing themselves. This led the officials to call the break, and bust out the ole rulebook for an official word. They cited Rule #81, Late arriving players will incur a chip penalty of 1 round of play per 15 minutes, up to a max of three rounds, meaining a player would start with a minimum of $8,200 in chips from the original $10,000.
This will take some time to sort, because some late arrivals had much more than that blinded off of their stacks.
Amazingly some poker was played in the last round. Lyle Berman's luck seemed to level off, and he has been stuck several rebuys. In one hand Berman was up against Chad Brown. After Brown called Berman's all-in raise and drew one Berman stood pat, simply tabling his Q-10-8-5-4, saying, "Beat that!" Brown simply checked his draw, and quietly showed the Q-8-7-5-2 to take the pot.
Daniel Negreanu has sat down with Doyle Brunson and has been enjoying the table. In one hand Brunson raised to $2,200, the player next to him made a large re-raise, and Daniel looked to find he had been dealt a wheel. Unfortunatley its the kind you want in Razz, not Deuce-to-Seven, Negreanu showed the 5-4-3-2-A to Minh Ly as he folded.
We will bring you more updates on the action on the hour here at CardPlayer.com
as he drew one. Hansen then announced that he had a wheel, and Alaei quickly mucked.
