Doyle Brunson 
It was a day of records to be broken at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) as 3,418 players descended on the Rio in Las Vegas for Day 1C of the Main Event. The field size was more than that of Day 1A and Day 1B combined and was the most of any given Main Event day in its entire history.
With the starting days of the tournament now over we can see how the numbers at WSOP Main Event 2012 (the fifth largest Main Event ever) stack up:
Entries: 6,598 (Day 1A: 1,066, Day 1B: 2,114, Day 1C: 3,418)
Total prize pool: USD $62,021,200
First place prize: USD $8,527,982
Minimum payout: USD $19,227
Places paid: 666
The ominous number of those making the money seems to foretell of doom and it didn’t go unnoticed amongst players. Daniel Negreanu, who was one of the chip leaders from Day 1B, tweeted: “6,598 entries in the 2012 WSOP and 666 get paid. 666. I would have made it 667 just to avoid the heebie jeebies.”
While US player Randy Haddox bagged up the most chips with 188,275 at the end of Day 1C play, the chip leader list was again littered with some familiar names. South Korean Steve Yea is the best placed player from Asia, finishing on a 157,175 stack. Yea has a couple of big scores on the Asian tournament circuit, coming runner-up in APT Macau 2008 and APT Philippines 2009 for USD $250,000 and USD $100,000 in prize money respectively and is second placed on the South Korean all-time money list.
Others to do well from Day 1C included Jake Cody (124,675), 2009 WSOP Main Event champion Joe Cada (117,375), Sorel Mizzi (115,000), Joseph Cheong (84,775), two-time Main Event winner Johnny Chan (82,300), the legendary Doyle Brunson (81,400) and the newly-crowned Big One for One Drop champion Antonio Esfandiari (78,925).
Brunson was, in fact, a surprise Day 1C entrant after previously letting his Twitter followers know he would be missing the Main Event this year: “I’m not playing the main event because I’m really tired after 6 weeks of tough cash games, playing 10-12 hours every single day. Sorry,” tweeted Brunson earlier but clearly had a change of heart.
Another player to accumulate a big stack was Viktor Blom (110,225) who had a little help from lady luck along the way. His turning point hand came when he six-bet an opponent preflop and then called their shove with his A♠ K♥ trailing their K♣ K♠. The resulting board delivered not one but two aces and saw him double up to 90,000 in chips.
Some notable players from Asia-Pacific to survive the day were India’s Aditya Agarwal (73,000), Hong Kong resident Kenneth Wong (60,000), Team Bodog Pro Jay Tan (58,925) and Andrew Scott (16,775). According to Tan’s Twitter account, she was down to around 12,000 at one point before making her comeback.
But those players who saw their Main Event dreams dashed were Andrew Robl, Annette Obrestad, Lex Veldhuis, Chris Moneymaker, Brendon Rubie, Tony Hachem, Chino Rheem, Justin Smith and 2010 WSOP Main Event winner Jonathan Duhamel.
It wasn’t all bad news for Duhamel, though, as earlier in the day he was presented with a replacement bracelet by the WSOP after his first one was stolen in a home invasion incident last year. It was later recovered as a barely recognisable hunk of metal by a Montreal street sweeper.
“It feels like I won a second one,” joked Duhamel after the WSOP’s Jack Effel presented him with his shiny replacement bracelet. He added, “It means a lot to me, I’m really happy to have it back again.”
The survivors from Day 1C will return on Wednesday for their Day 2C flight. Tuesday’s (remember, it’s US time) Main Event will feature Day 2A and Day 2B players.
Read more at WSOP.com.
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