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Event #57 Main Event Day 1D

Day 1D

11:26 AM -- Day 1C ended with 1,106 players. This means 58 percent of starters survived the first day. And yesterday Congressman Barney Frank got things started underway. But why would a congressman show up at the Main Event? Well the piece of legislation he has in process will help to overturn the UIGEA and set the path for online gambling to be regulated. We will post more on this one later.

Each player will begin with 30,000 in chips and play for five levels. The decision to play for 5 instead of the 4 that was played on Day 1A and 1B was made because the majority of players registered on 1C and 1D. Plus the field needed to be thinned out in order to accommodate Day 2B. Action will start at 12 noon.

12:10 PM -- Day 1D is now underway, and the official word from Seth Palansky, Communications Director of the WSOP is that this day is completely sold out! The registration office has been shut down for the Main Event. This is saying something as each section of Day 1 enabled up to 3,000 players to sign up. More news on this as it is released to the Media.

It was reported that there are so many players that the Amazon, Brasilia and Miranda rooms cannot hold them all. Players are also taking seats in the regular poker room at the RIO, at tables set up inside of hallways and outside of restaurants. And still many players who registered late ended up walking away because they could not be seated. There is a rumor of a Day 1E being created because of this situation. We here at Just Gamble For Free wonder if the top players from 1D will have an disproportionate avalanche of chips compared to those on Day 1A and 1B? The truth will come out as the day progresses.

Photo of Amazon Room on Day 1D

12:52 PM -- Seen so far at the tables are Blair Hinkle, Vanessa Rousso, Scott Clements, Rafe Furst, Josh Arieh, actor Marlon Wayans, Phil Ivey, Erick Lindgren , Yuval Bronstein, Dario Minieri, J.C. Tran, Shannon Elizabeth, Clonie Gowan, Mimi Tran, Ester Taylor, actor Lou Diamond Phillips, Antonio Esfandiari, Farzad Bonyadi , Vivek Rajkumar and Dave Benefield.

As a side note, so far two players have made quad Jacks and received the $100 Beef Jerky prize as a result. But poor Swiss player Anton Allemann saw nothing but the door as his pocket 2's that turned into a set on a flop of K 6 2, was put to rest by another player with pocket K's making a bigger set of Kings.

1:37 PM -- More faces at the tables include actor Ray Romano, Eugene Todd, blind player Hal Lubarsky , Jennifer Harman, Mark Seif, Ivan Demidov, Shannon Shorr, Scott Fischman and Shawn Sheikhan. 2009 event champions Angel Guillen and Brian Lemke were also taking a chance at another bracelet. Plus, Phil Ivey just hit a set of 6's to improve his lot up to 36,000.

2:46 PM -- Dario Mineri busted out a few minutes ago when the other player he was all-in with made a Jack high flush. And Josh Arieh has put the pedal to the medal as he now sits with 78,000 in his stack to be the early chip leader. Following Josh are Dennis Payton with 64,000, Kristy Gazes wtih 47,500, Noah Schwartz with 42,500 and Phil Ivey with 42,000.

3:17 PM -- Other players busting out include Tony Dunst after his pocket K's ran into a player holding pocket A's. Also, many players who were turned away because of lack of capacity included many pro players, Mickey Appleman being one of them.

4:20 PM -- Scott Montegomery who made the 2008 Main Event final table will not make it again this year. Scott lost the last of his chips to a player who made a set of 7's. Michael Mizrachi also has had a bad day so far. His stack has been hemorrhaging away today and in a recent hand, Michael is down to 10,000 after his opponent made a set of 5's. The 2008 Main Event champion Peter Eastgate is up to 45,000 in a bid to defend his title.

Latest bust is former NBA player John Sulley who had to walk from the table when he could not overcome the pocket K's of another player.

4:40 PM -- There will be no Day 1E as Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack met with a few hundred players, (very brave man), and informed them that they would have to wait until next year to get into the Main Event. Pollack said they were simply at capacity and there was nothing else that could be done.

Regarding Congressman Barney Frank and his efforts to overturn the UIGEA and legalize online gambling. Frank is the sponsor of two bills, (HR 2266 and HR 2267), that he says are gaining an increase in support and more co-sponsors. His desire is to protect the rights of online poker and online gambling for Americans and these bills will regulate the industry and stop the efforts of the UIGEA. So now we know which bills to talk to our congress person about!

5:51 PM -- Ray Romano got into a three way all-in preflop with pocket Q's. He was called by another player with pocket A's and a third with K 9 suited. The board helped no one and Ray went home early and will have to come back again next year. Tom Hall also went to the rail after his bid with A K was beaten up with pocket K's, leaving Hall in the fetal position with no chips.

6:51 PM -- Recent eliminations include Jeff Madsen, Peter Feldman, Alec Torelli, Mimi Tran, Eric Baldwin, Shannon Shorr, Huck Seed, Olga Varkonyi and Lyle Berman. Meanwhile, another player yelled for his $100 Beef Jerky prize as he made quad Jacks by the river. The player Mike Johnson held pocket J's and got the other two on the flop and the river. The top 6 players right now are:

  1. Blair Hinkle -- 120,000
  2. Loic Bellabarba -- 111,000
  3. Chad Brown -- 105,000
  4. Brice Cournut -- 102,100
  5. Jacob Avital -- 98,000
  6. Adam Schoenfeld -- 97,200
7:58 PM -- The official count of players is 6,494 for the Main Event. A prize pool of over $61 million dollars was created and first place will pay $8,548,435 to the new champion. Everyone is now on dinner break. Oh yeah, Day 1D player count is 2,809. This came from Jack Effel. It seems it should be higher. If it should change we will post it here for you.

9:00 PM -- We just got the payout schedule and good Lord! Everyone who makes the final table will become an instant millionaire! Here are the figures for the final table:
  1. $8,546,435
  2. $5,182,601
  3. $3,479,485
  4. $2,502,787
  5. $1,953,395
  6. $1,587,133
  7. $1,404,002
  8. $1,300,228
  9. $1,263,602
The remainder of the list will be posted later tonight.

9:26 PM -- The total prize pool is $61,043,600 which will go to the top 648 places. Just for the final table alone, the pool share is $27,219,668. This will make each player who gets to the final table an instant millionaire!

Official Schedule for the 2009 Main Event

10:23 PM -- Svetlana Gromenkova just busted out of the Main Event. Following her were Adam Friedman, Yuval Bronstein, Shirley Rosario, Dave Benefield and Paul Snead. Ivan Demidov also went to the rail when his flush draw was beaten down by the full house (6's/5's) of player Dwayne Stacey.

11:35 PM -- Right now the average stack is 39,700 per player. That means there are approximately 2,100 players still in the field from the 2,809 we started with. John Alexander's Ace high flush lost to the flopped full house of another player, and is on his way to the rail. Amir Vahedi followed John after losing to the paired Queens belonging to Marc Karam. And Sully Erna of the band Godsmack was praying to get out of the door quickly after losing to the Ace high flush of another player, sending him to the sidelines.

12:30 AM -- In a hand involving Scott Fischman, David Beyamine, Fischman was all-in preflop with 6h 2h and Benyamine had pocket 7's. The first card on the flop was a 7, resulting in Benyamine busting Fischman out of the tournament after the remaining cards were no help to anyone else. Average chip count is 42,750 with 1,971 players left and there is just a few minutes to go in the last level.

One player was escorted out of the Miranda room and down the halls of the RIO a few minutes ago. They said he was very loud, rowdy and disruptive. But that is pretty much the norm here. With so much money on the line, people act so badly you would think some were possessed. So when you play in a WSOP tournament, it helps to keep your cool as much as you can.

12:52 AM -- The escorted player was given a penalty for dropping the F-bomb repeatedly. But then tournament officials felt he was too intoxicated to continue. He was taken back to his hotel room after some friends chipped in to get him there safely. But the player will return with about 56,000 chips on Thursday, hopefully with a lot more control than he showed today.

By now tournament officials have said for the remaining players to bag their chips and go get some rest. Tomorrow will be Day 2A (1A + 1B) beginning at noon. See you then!

Day 1D ended with 1,816 players. This means 65 percent of starters survived the first day. Here are the top 50 players with chip counts:

  1. Troy Weber -- 353,000
  2. Tyson Marks -- 196,500
  3. Stephen Costello -- 192,000
  4. Mads Wissing -- 185,750
  5. Joseph Sanders -- 175,800
  6. Mikael Ay -- 173,900
  7. Carter King -- 170,000
  8. Mark Weil -- 168,575
  9. Paul Wolfe -- 163,000
  10. Alessandro Pastura -- 160,900
  11. Adam Sanders -- 156,400
  12. Steven Levy -- 148,825
  13. Tim Davis -- 146,000
  14. Samuel Kunin -- 145,775
  15. J.C. Tran -- 139,975
  16. Dan Bilzerian -- 139,675
  17. Jesper Hougaard -- 138,675
  18. Julian Parmann -- 137,400
  19. Jacob Avital -- 136,625
  20. Josh Arieh -- 135,700
  21. Jon Kalmar -- 135,050
  22. Jesse Yaginuma -- 135,050
  23. Eugene Katchalov -- 133,725
  24. Josh Brikis -- 133,375
  25. James Gorham -- 133,375
  26. Jeff "Mr. Rain" Banghart -- 132,650
  27. Denis Estelle -- 131,800
  28. Mike Lovelace -- 130,450
  29. Asa Smith -- 129,625
  30. Bertrand Grospellier -- 127,475
  31. Germain Gillard -- 126,575
  32. Dwayne Stacey -- 126,575
  33. Farukh Tach -- 125,975
  34. Loic Bellabarba -- 125,750
  35. Prahlad Friedman -- 124,125
  36. Tejune Kang -- 123,250
  37. Dan Grolemund -- 122,424
  38. Tommy Kaplan -- 122,000
  39. Joseph Cappello -- 121,900
  40. Bolivar Palacios -- 121,525
  41. Dutch Boyd -- 121,050
  42. Cary Katz -- 120,250
  43. Matthew Wood -- 120,200
  44. Kent Goulding -- 119,275
  45. Vadzim Markushevski -- 118,325
  46. Bernhard Perner -- 118,275
  47. Massoud Nikjouian -- 117,250
  48. Richard Fohrenbach -- 117,100
  49. Giovanni Nervo -- 115,450
  50. Alessandro Nocerino -- 115,250