The 41st World Series of Poker is finally here and it began, as is now the custom, with the casino employees only event, a $500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament.
The tournament attracted 721 players and saw casino dealer Hoai Pham collect the first WSOP bracelet of the 2010 series, in addition to first place prize money of $71,424.
Pham usually works in San Diego and had travelled to Las Vegas specifically for this WSOP event. He described winning the bracelet as “magical” and requested that the national anthem of Vietnam be played at his bracelet presentation.
The more serious WSOP business kicked off on Friday, with the commencement of the “Chip Reese Memorial Trophy”, also known as the “Player’s Championship”. The $50,000 buy-in HORSE tournament is considered to be a bigger deal than the WSOP Main Event by many professional poker players and has been won by such poker luminaries as Freddy Deeb, Scotty Nguyen and of course, the man whose name features in the title.
Chip Reese sadly passed away late in 2007 and officials were quick to rename the WSOP event after the man that Doyle Brunson describes as, “the best player I’ve ever played with”. Reese was a real gentleman and a big influence on many poker professionals. Known for his skills in all forms of poker, he won the $50,000 HORSE event in 2006, earning $1,784,640 and his third WSOP bracelet.
This year’s event drew 116 players, including the real cream of the poker crop, with such talent as Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu stumping up the massive buy-in for the prestigious mixed games poker tournament.
Day 1 saw the elimination of just six players, but the second day’s play saw the field thinned to just 54. Kirk Morrison, winner of a Seven Card Stud event at the 1998 World Series of Poker, holds the chip lead going into day three, whilst Andy Bloch, who finished runner up in this event in 2006, sits second in chips.
Day 1A of the first $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event is also complete, with 2,601 players signing up. It seems quite likely that the event will break 6,000 players and the likes of Amarillo Slim, Jon Friedberg and Vanessa Rousso will be coming back on Day 2, to continue the hunt for a coveted WSOP bracelet.
Stay tuned for World Series of Poker updates.
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