Time to Breathe…

…and sleep.

Thursday is a much needed day of rest for the 1,159 players remaining in the 2006 World Series of Poker Championship Event. On Friday, it’s back to the grind. Back to the wonderful combo-aroma of burgers and bodies, back to the floor littered with empty water bottles, back to the cries of “Seat open!” Back to the fun.

Dmitri Nobles leads the field, which will finally all play in the same room at the same time, with $549,200 in chips, $100,000 more than the second place competitor, Yuriy Kozinskiy.

Also at the top of the standings is popular pro, Daniel Negreanu, with $331,000, and internet phenom, Jason Strasser right behind him with $319,000. Other notables include, along with their chip counts:

Jeff Cabanillas 203,000 (aiming to prove his victory over Phil Hellmuth was no fluke)
Jeff Lisandro 194,800
Allen Cunningham 172,900
David Chiu 154,700
Humberto Brenes 148,300
John Gale 146,500
John Hoang 145,200
Ted Lawson 135,000
Ted Forrest 130,900
Joe Hachem 114,100 (2005 WSOP champion)
David Pham 112,300
Nam Le 91,000
Josh Arieh 85,600
Mark Vos 81,100
Cyndy Violette 79,000
Juan Carlos Mortensen 77,600 (2001 WSOP champion)
Surinder Sunar 77,300
Darrell Dicken 69,300
Hoyt Corkins 67,900
Annie Duke 67,000
Freddy Deeb 64,500
Tom McEvoy 60,500 (1983 WSOP champion)
Chris Ferguson 55,200 (2000 WSOP champion)
Kathy Liebert 48,500
David Grey 46,200
Billy Baxter 42,600
Susie Isaacs 40,300

Hand of “Day 2”

Two players got all their chips into the middle on a K-Q-8 flop. One player shows a set of Kings, one player shows a set of Queens. Nothing on the turn, but then the river produced the case Queen, giving the underdog, and the shorter stack, quads. He let out quite a yell as he jumped up, knocking his chair over. The gentleman with Kings was, in fact, a gentleman, congratulated his opponent, and even smiled and reveled a bit in the crazy luck they all just witnessed.

Hand of “Day 2” – Part 2

The first player to act on the river with a King-high, three diamond board bet. The other player in the hand, who had a very large stack of chips, moved all-in. The original bettor stood up, lamenting the decision he had to make. It looked like he was going to fold, so the big stack held his two cards out, still face down, and said, “I’ll show you if you fold.”

The original bettor then looked like he might call, and, in an effort to speed up his decision, he pulled a coin from his pocket and flipped it. It told him to fold. He called. The big stack had J-Q of diamonds for the second-nut flush, while the coin-flipper mucked and was out of the tournament.

When he stepped outside the ropes, I asked, along with another spectator, what he had. Top pair. Why did he flip the coin and then go against it? After all, he flipped it for a reason. “I don’t know,” he said. “I had used it before, did what it said, and won, so I don’t know. I guess I just decided that I wouldn’t have had many chips left if I folded and I would’ve been in great shape if I won, so I figured I needed to make the call.”

Despite his bust-out, he came back a few minutes later to watch the table, and while he cringed when he saw how many chips his opponent now had, he said he had a blast playing in his first live tournament.

Quote of “Day 2”

“Some of these people, you’d think they were at a funeral, not the World Series.”