Ask any poker player what their dream is, and more often than not, you’ll hear to win the Main Event at the World Series of Poker. That’s just what thousands of players are attempting to do as this is written, as Day 1B is currently going on, with Day 1A in the books, and Day 1C and 1D yet to come.
Yesterday started out with 1,297 players, all in search of the big one. 636 players survived the breakneck pace of Day 1 that saw players start with 20k in chips, but still move at a relatively brisk pace. The most notable name from the top of Day 1A would have to be Brandon “wins_pot” Adams. A long time, well respected pro who’s played some of the biggest cash games in the world, he’s primed to make a good run in the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event. Despite the fact that with his 176,450 stack, he’ll have hundreds of big blinds heading into Day 2, it’s going to be a heck of a climb to the top, as the variance is just mind boggling. He’ll be well equipped to do damage with that stack, however.
1,158 players came out today, adding up to 2,455 players thus far. It will be interesting to see if nearly 4,000 players show up tomorrow and Sunday, because that is what it will take to eclipse last year’s number of 6,358 entrants. After this weekend, the players will get a one day break, as they will reconvene on Tuesday, with all four Day 1’s joining up.
As for today, there are some tough customers showing up atop the leaderboard. As this is written, the players are heading into 200/400 with a 50 ante, the last level of the day. So the storylines may be a bit different tomorrow, but here’s what we’re looking at as of now. Michael “SirWatts” Watson is looking good with 98,000, as is Marc Karam with 94,000. Patrik Antonius is taking a break from high stakes cash games to amass a 82k stack on Day 1, as first time bracelet winner Erick Lindgren is right behind him with 81k. This is of course only scratching the surface of the world-class talent still left in the Main Event, so it’ll be extremely interesting to see how things pan out over the next few hours.
That’s all for today’s WSOP ME update, be sure to check back to FTR Blogs as we’ll be covering the mother of all poker tournaments all the way down to the final table.