U.S. Poker Championship In Full Swing

The $10,000 Main Event of the United States Poker Championship (USPC) got underway Tuesday, with 225 players vying for the title and $831,532 at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Poker News Daily is there and will provide updates of important happenings every day as the tournament marches on.

First impressions were that the Championship was a bit disorganized. Only an hour or two before the festivities were to begin, ESPN camera crews were still scrambling around getting the featured table setup right next to the registration desk. Cash games and other tournaments were still running at tables that were to be used for the tournament, only minutes before 3:00pm, the scheduled start time. The table numbers were only on the surface of the tables themselves, rather than being easy to see from afar, causing players to roam through the tournament area, searching for their tables, and generally clogging up the aisles unnecessarily.

Just before the tournament was to begin, one of the table numbers changed to account for the featured table, and shortly into play, all the players on one table were moved to another. Speaking of featured tables, there was an additional television table located at the Mark G. Etess Arena next door to the poker room, something that many players did not even realize until most of Day 1 was in the books.

The tournament area was also not sufficiently set apart from the rest of the poker room; there was no buffer between the tournament tables and the cash tables, creating an undue amount of traffic and noise by the outer tables. Even when the outer tables broke, the Taj just filled in those tables with cash games, providing no relief from the distractions.

At to that the fact that the tournament started thirty minutes late, came back from breaks late, and resumed after dinner thirty minutes late, and it was not the prettiest first day.

Most of the “big names” are here, but with the hectic tournament schedule of the last month, it was apparent that some decided to sit this one out. Rather than listing off all the famous faces that are in attendance, here are some that are not playing: Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Chan, Phil Laak, Freddy Deeb (probably still reveling in his WPT Aruba win), Marcel Luske, John Hennigan, and Jennifer Harman.

Because the field is relatively small compared to some of the $10,000 buy-in events lately, a high concentration of poker power could be seen at any of the tables. One table had Mark Seif and Kathy Liebert. One had Young Phan, Kenna James, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, Scott Fischman, Kenna James, and WSOP Main Event runner-up, Steve Dannenmann. Yet another table had Erik Seidel, Alan Goehring, and Alan Cunningham. Another had Phil Ivey and Hoyt Corkins. The list goes on and on.

The actual poker was interesting. Players started with $20,000 in chips, and with blinds beginning at only $25/$50, people were slow to get knocked out. It also made for some important lessons in how to play big stack poker.

Lesson One: There is no need to overplay hands early.

Lesson Two: A typical 3x the big blind raise early on does not accomplish much.

These lessons were learned by several players who were eliminated during the first level with the best starting hand. Aces were cracked by significantly inferior hands twice, resulting not in the player losing some chips, but, rather, losing all of their chips.

The first player to find the rail decided that raising to $150 with pocket Aces against stacks of $20,000 would force players out of the pot. Well, it did get rid of some, but the big blind, who had a weak A-4 decided that it was worth his while to see the flop for another $100. And what a flop it was: 4-4-7. Even with raising and re-raising after the flop, the player with Aces couldn’t see that something scary might be developing, so she eventually found herself all-in against her opponent’s trip fours.

A short time later, another player with pocket rockets was shown the door against 8-10 when two 10’s flopped.

Pocket Kings lost to A-K when the underdog caught a runner-runner straight. 9-10 defeated A-K when the player with A-K didn’t figure out that his foe just might have paired something. J-J lost to J-K when a King flopped. All instances of needlessly putting your stack at risk too early in the face of potential danger.

As the saying goes, “You can’t win a tournament on the first day, but you sure can lose it.”

Day 1 concluded at the end of Level 4, with 161 players remaining. Most of the big names are still alive, although John Phan was eliminated fairly early and Ted Forrest was eliminated with his Q-Q ran into K-K.

Day 2 will resume at 1:00pm Wednesday, with $150/$300 blinds and a $50 ante. Three 90-minute levels will be played before dinner, with two more levels after.

COMPLETE STANDINGS - END OF DAY 1

161 players remaining
Average chips -- $27,950

(Place/Player/Chip Count)

1 Cong Do -- $99,975
2 Lance Funston -- $96,325
3 Pete Skyllas -- $90,100
4 Thomas Owens -- $89,900
5 James White -- $74,175
6 Francis Vizza -- $70,500
7 John Hanson -- $62,400
8 Chris Furbert -- $61,150
9 Eric Crain -- $59,350
10 Chad Moore -- $58,875
11 John D'Agostino -- $56,150
12 Tommy Wang -- $55,600
13 Rathe Miller -- $51,525
14 Chad Layne -- $51,075
15 Amir Marmar -- $50,750
16 Matthew Glantz -- $50,275
17 Jean-Robert Bellande -- $48,925
18 Mark Seif -- $47,275
19 Joe Cassidy -- $47,250
20 Mario Berlingieri -- $46,725
21 Brian Donahue -- $46,525
22 Salvatore Berardi -- $46,375
23 Vell Senthil Kumar -- $46,325
24 Michael Mizrachi -- $45,300
25 Vincent Napolitano -- $45,225
26 Douglas Carli -- $44,775
27 Men Nguyen -- $43,050
28 Gavin Smith -- $41,625
29 Wally Wei -- $41,625
30 Daniel Cutroni -- $41,300
31 Michael Sukonik -- $40,625
32 George Anthony -- $40,300
33 Phuong Tran -- $40,025
34 Wayne Keifihan -- $39,925
35 Thomas Peterson -- $39,825
36 Paul Magriel -- $38,175
37 Sam Von Duhn -- $38,050
38 Sanjay Pandya -- $37,425
39 Ralph Pecorale -- $36,075
40 Augustine Melendez -- $35,625
41 Kathy Liebert -- $34,675
42 Steven Brecher -- $34,475
43 Jan Sorensen -- $34,125
44 Surinder Sunar -- $33,950
45 Chris Ferguson -- $33,800
46 John Juanda -- $33,650
47 Bruce Fishbein -- $33,375
48 Neal Gersony -- $33,350
49 Erik Seidel -- $33,200
50 Kevin Chan -- $31,950
51 Bernard Lee -- $31,900
52 Sean McCabe -- $31,425
53 Sy Phanhyasen -- $31,175
54 Ricardo Festejo -- $31,075
55 Ray Lin -- $30,600
56 Charles Minter -- $30,350
57 James Caporuscio -- $29,950
58 John Cernuto -- $29,700
59 Adam White -- $29,400
60 Joe Simmons -- $29,075
61 Joseph Brooks -- $28,475
62 Curt Kolhberg -- $28,375
63 Allen Kessler -- $28,250
64 Amnon Filippi -- $28,175
65 Tom Schreiber -- $28,125
66 Hoyt Corkins -- $28,100
67 Philip Vera -- $27,900
68 Anthony Devitto -- $27,575
69 Michael Santoro -- $26,550
70 Jerry Womack -- $26,100
71 Barry Berger -- $26,075
72 Steven Greenberg -- $25,975
73 Gregg Fishberg -- $25,800
74 Blake Buffington -- $25,750
75 Mickey Appleman -- $25,725
76 Thomas Franklin -- $25,575
77 Jim Harris -- $25,425
78 Careron Scott -- $25,125
79 Alan Colon -- $25,125
80 Tom Sheets -- $25,000
81 Bill Gazes -- $24,950
82 Arthur Gallinaro -- $24,600
83 Donald Blair -- $24,350
84 Tuan Vu -- $24,125
85 Juan Vazquez -- $24,075
86 Brian Haveson -- $23,575
87 Louis Russo -- $23,400
88 John Renzi -- $23,350
89 Joe Palma -- $23,325
90 Hun Bae -- $23,000
91 Roland Isra -- $22,575
92 Mike Matusow -- $22,550
93 Jonnais Sombanidis -- $22,550
94 Don Webb -- $22,175
95 Sal Giambrone -- $21,700
96 Michael Shasho -- $21,625
97 Robert Perry -- $21,275
98 Jay Park -- $20,950
99 Casey Peters -- $20,925
100 Douglas Johnson -- $20,800
101 James Gaeta -- $20,725
102 Bobby Chung -- $19,550
103 Rizqallah Abusued -- $19,475
104 Ted Lawson -- $19,375
105 Bobby Wisak -- $19,125
106 Sidney Yates -- $18,550
107 Mike Sica -- $18,375
108 Vadim Trimcher -- $18,225
109 Tom Coan -- $18,075
110 Mickey Finn -- $18,000
111 Mauricio Polack -- $17,925
112 Michael Buttacavoli -- $17,750
113 Annand Ramdin -- $17,700
114 Allen Cunningham -- $17,525
115 Jack Schroth -- $17,450
116 Robert 'Bo' Toft -- $17,000
117 Steven Dannenmann -- $16,950
118 Balint Barta -- $16,750
119 Gerald Cheathan -- $16,700
120 Alan Smurfit -- $16,150
121 Dean Yi -- $15,950
122 Robert Edgren -- $15,825
123 Brad Bischoff -- $15,700
124 David Levi -- $15,525
125 Jesse Martin -- $15,250
126 Kenna James -- $15,250
127 Joseph Saccone -- $15,200
128 Thomas Koral -- $15,150
129 Ray Cheek -- $14,725
130 William Johnson -- $14,225
131 Xiao Chu Shangguan -- $14,100
132 Scott Fischman -- $13,850
133 Yakup Olgun -- $13,475
134 Wayne Lewis -- $13,025
135 Rick Rossetti -- $12,650
136 Richard Janiczek -- $11,175
137 Layne Flack -- $10,975
138 James Bonfat -- $10,775
139 James Necohea -- $10,450
140 Thomas Foley -- $10,075
141 David Stevens -- $10,000
142 Alex Vuong -- $9,775
143 Michael Saltzburg -- $8,975
144 Leo Walker -- $8,350
145 Carless Boatwright -- $8,225
146 Richard Cohen -- $7,875
147 Ross Mallor -- $7,525
148 Barry Greenstein -- $7,150
149 Patrick Arena -- $7,050
150 Matthew Ciaglia -- $6,600
151 Joe Connor -- $6,575
152 Cyndy Violette -- $6,525
153 Joseph Toth -- $6,225
154 Matt Zambanim -- $6,225
155 Phil Ivey -- $6,000
156 Stephen Colotow -- $5,850
157 Chris Tsiprailidis -- $5,500
158 David Pham -- $5,075
159 Young Phan -- $4,000
160 Steve Delvecchio -- $3,800
161 Dylan Simpson -- $2,975


PRIZE PAYOUTS

Total Players -- 225
Total Prizepool -- $2,182,500

(Place/Prize Money)

1. $831,532.50
2. $436,500
3. $218,250
4. $130,950
5. $98,212.50
6. $76,387.50
7. $54,562.50
8. $43,650
9. $34,102.50
10-18. $28,372.50