[user68268]
Crown Casino's Jim Preston kicking things off on Day 1a
Today marks the second day of World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific action from Down Under. Yesterday, the festivities kicked off with Day 1a of the opening AU$1,100 No-Limit Hold'em Accumulator event. The first of three starting flights drew 197 entries and only 30 of them survived. Topping the pack after a massive day was two-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Scott Clements with 76,575 in chips.
No other player bagged up half of that amount, and those rounding out the top five were Marko Piper (36,825), Zane Ly (36,400), Jamie Pickering (34,150), and last year's runner-up Jonathan Karamalikis (30,900).
Lots of players came and went on Day 1a, but with this unique event each of them will be able to try again here today on Day 1b — or Day 1c which takes place later on today. Of those who failed to "accumulate" enough chips to reach the bag-and-tag portion of last night were Phil Hellmuth, Mike Leah, Jonathan Duhamel, Russell Thomas, Mohsin Charania, Jackie Glazier, Vanessa Rousso, Ami Barer, and Ryan Riess.
One of the players that did bag up chips was George Danzer. He finished on 24,625 and currently sits in a very close second on the 2014 WSOP Player of the Year leader board with 745.2 points. The leader, Brandon Shack-Harris with 752 points, had some travel delays and didn't make it for Day 1a. Also surprising was that Daniel Negreanu didn't show up yesterday despite tweeting about his excitement an hour before play began. We expect both Shack-Harris and Negreanu to be in action today.
Day 1b will see the cards in the air at 12:10 p.m. local time at Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia. Just like yesterday, eight one-hour levels are on the schedule with 15 breaks after every two levels and no dinner break. Players begin with 3,000 in tournament chips.
Day 1c also begins today, and that will kick off at 6:10 p.m. local time. That means it's going to be a long day of poker, but when there's a big payday and a WSOP gold bracelet up for grabs, what could be better? Stay tuned and we'll see you back here for the start momentarily.
Back on July 14, the 2014 World Series of Poker Main Event final table was set. The players in this year's "November Nine" are set to resume play on November 10, and it is a globally diverse group of young players who will be battling it out for the $10 million top prize.
Daniel Sindelar graduated college in 2006 and made the move from his home state of Nebraska to Las Vegas, Nevada. Since then, it's been all poker for the young man from the Midwest, and he's done well enough to find himself at the 2014 WSOP Main Event final table with 21.2 million in chips.
This finish will be far and away Sindelar's most impressive, but he's recorded 17 WSOP cashes and 11 WSOP Circuit cashes over the years.
George Danzer's starting table was recently broke, and he was moved over to the same table as Daniel Negreanu and Ryan Riess. This is especially interesting considering Danzer and Negreanu are sitting second and third respectively on the 2014 World Series of Poker Player of the Year leaderboard. The man who leads them, Brandon Shack-Harris, is seated just one table over, so it's certainly an area of the room worth keeping an eye on.
In the last hand of Level 1, a player in middle position opened for 50 and Negreanu called from the hijack. Noah Novick then three-bet to 250 from the cutoff, the original raiser folded, and Negreanu called to see a flop of . Negreanu proceeded to check-call a bet of 200 before both players checked the turn.
When the completed the board on the river, Negreanu bet 700 and Novick hit the tank. Negreanu began his patented table talk and stated that he put Novick on either kings or jacks.
"What do you have?" Novick asked. Negreanu joked that he would tell him, but he didn't want to get a penalty. Not long after, Novick min-raised to 1,400.
Negreanu was flabbergasted and began to laugh out loud.
"My whole life I've always wanted to do that," Negreanu complimented his opponent much to the entertainment of the table. "I've never had the balls to do that."
Negreanu chuckled a bit more and then sent his cards to the muck. The table urged Novick to show a bluff, but he showed just the for at least a pair of queens.
When we've seen Everett Carlton in the past, it's been primarily at small World Series of Poker Circuits stops. That's why is was a bit surprising to see him in the "Land Down Under" for the WSOP APAC. When asked what inspired him to make the long trip from Minnesota, Carlton laughed and explained that he needed some more miles on Delta to make platinum, and there was no better way to do it than to travel to Australia to play a little poker.
Unfortunately for Carlton, things didn't go his way here on Day 1b. He was crippled by Jonathan Duhamel, and a short time later he shoved his last 400 all in preflop holding only to run into an opponent holding . Carlton failed to get lucky, and he made an early exit from Event #1. Whether or not he'll try again later tonight in the Day 1c flight remains to be seen.
Ryan Riess has to be Brandon Shack-Harris' favorite player, at least today. That's because the 2013 World Series of Poker Main Event champ has singlehandedly eliminated both Daniel Negreanu and George Danzer, the two players closest to Shack-Harris in the 2014 WSOP Player of the Year race.
Danzer was the most recent to fall, and it happened after he called a raise from Riess and the two saw a flop of . Both players checked, a hit the turn, and Riess led out for 125. Danzer raised it to 400, Riess three-bet to 2,500, and Danzer called off his remaining chips with for top pair. Unfortunately for him, he was drawing dead as Riess had made a set with . With that, Danzer, who survived Day 1a with a stack of 24,625, was eliminated from Day 1b. We expect he'll look to accumulate more chips in the Day 1c flight later this evening.
Meanwhile, Peter Aristidou has also been eliminated from the tournament.
Back on July 14, the 2014 World Series of Poker Main Event final table was set. The players in this year's "November Nine" are set to resume play on November 10, and it is a globally diverse group of young players who will be battling it out for the $10 million top prize.
Andoni Larrabe represents Spain at this year's WSOP Main Event final table, and he's also the youngest player of the bunch at 22 years old. Bunched right in the middle of the pack (fourth) with 22.5 million in chips, Larrabe brings a good online poker background to the table where he has captured two Spring Championship of Online Poker titles.
In the live poker realm, Larrabe had $341,266 coming into the final table. He then notched two more small scores in his home country during European Poker Tour Barcelona.
"I'm going to approach it as calm as I can," Larrabe told ESPN's Andrew Feldman about the final table. "There's a lot of time. I'll think about it, but the most important thing will be to go relax."
Back on July 14, the 2014 World Series of Poker Main Event final table was set. The players in this year's "November Nine" are set to resume play on November 10, and it is a globally diverse group of young players who will be battling it out for the $10 million top prize.
Just before the 2014 WSOP, William Tonking scored a $50,000 payday on WSOP.com in his home state of New Jersey. That $50,000 is a far cry from the $730,725 he's guaranteed for making the WSOP Main Event final table, but Tonking claims he was never much of a tournament player.
"I was never much of a tournament player," Tonking told PokerNews. "This is only the third one that I’ve played this year. I’m more of a cash-game player."
It sounds like the third time was the charm for Tonking, and this cash-game player will be looking to make more of a name for himself by taking down the "grand daddy of them all" for a massive $10 million.
No luck came on the second bullet for Phil Hellmuth, as the 13-time World Series of Poker gold bracelet winner will have to fight through another speed bump in his quest for number 14.
According to Nebojsa Blanusa, the "Poker Brat" first tried to bluff an opponent that had flopped quads and then later lost the rest of his chips to Nathan Gubieski.
Hellmuth had called a raise by Gubieski to see the flop, and that's where Gubieski bet 400 and Hellmuth came along for the ride with another 900 in chips behind. A second nine came on the turn and the two got the money in. Gubieski had the but Hellmuth was ahead with the .
The on the river saw Gubieski improve to a flush, and that busted Hellmuth from the tournament.
Back on July 14, the 2014 World Series of Poker Main Event final table was set. The players in this year's "November Nine" are set to resume play on November 10, and it is a globally diverse group of young players who will be battling it out for the $10 million top prize.
William Pappaconstantinou, who is also known as "Billy Pappas," is one of the best foosball players in the world. That's right, that old, rickety table soccer game that sits in your basement is what Pappaconstantinou specializes in. He's been playing since 2003 and has won several world championships.
Pappaconstantinou is also the son of a former professional golfer and previously worked as a dealer at Rockingham Park Poker Room in Salem, New Hampshire.
Entering the WSOP Main Event final table in sixth place with 17.5 million in chips, Pappaconstantinou will be looking to add a different world championship to his résumé come November.
Any hope Ryan Riess had of making a comeback was just cut short courtesy of David Bowen.
We missed the final hand, but Steve Gee, Riess' fellow Octo-Niner, was kind enough to fill us in on some details. According to him, Riess raised preflop with and received two calls, including one from Bowen. The flop saw Riess get his remaining chips in against Bowen, who had flopped top pair with .
Riess got it in good, but the dealer promptly burned and turned another to give Bowen the lead. The river was a blank, and that was all she wrote for the 2013 WSOP Main Event champ. Fortunately for him, the Day 1c flight is about to begin so he'll have one more shot at advancing to Day 2.
![[user68268]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
. Negreanu proceeded to check-call a bet of 200 before both players checked the 
turn.
completed the board on the river, Negreanu bet 700 and Novick hit the tank. Negreanu began his patented table talk and stated that he put Novick on either kings or jacks.
for at least a pair of queens.
only to run into an opponent holding 
. Both players checked, a 
hit the turn, and Riess led out for 125. Danzer raised it to 400, Riess three-bet to 2,500, and Danzer called off his remaining chips with 
flop, and that's where Gubieski bet 400 and Hellmuth came along for the ride with another 900 in chips behind. A second nine came on the turn and the two got the money in. Gubieski had the 
but Hellmuth was ahead with the 
.
on the river saw Gubieski improve to a flush, and that busted Hellmuth from the tournament.
flop saw Riess get his remaining chips in against Bowen, who had flopped top pair with 
.
