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$15,000 NLHE
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| Joe Sebok - busto | |
World Poker Tour’s Festa al Lago Ultra-Deep Stack Main Event Kicks Off
The $15,000 Festa al Lago WPT Main Event got off to a slow
start on Wednesday at the Bellagio. The tournament features one of the deepest
structures of the year. With each player starting with 600 big blinds, the
momentum takes awhile to build. This year, players can even wait to register
until five hours into Day 2. The stacks weren’t quite deep enough to save more than 40 of
the day’s 246 entrants. Soheil Shamseddin was the first to bust in just under
90 minutes. Michael and Robert Mizrachi, Daniel Negreanu, Joe Sebok, Eric
“Basebaldy” Baldwin, Chad Brown, Antonio Esfandiari, and David Benyamine also didn’t make it through the day.
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| Jason Mercier seated between Chad Batista and Adam Geyer | |
The field was chock full of heavy hitters, meaning most
tables had several WPT title winners. One table had two-time winner and former
player of the year Jonathan Little, 2009 WPT winners Cornel Andrew Cimpan and
Allen Carter, and WPT Ladies’ Night champ Jennifer Tilly. A few tables over,
WPT winners Barry Greenstein, Erik Seidel, and Nick Schulman stared at each other
across the felt. Carter King and Jason Mercier lamented drawing a table full of
tough young players, including Michael Mizrachi, Chad “lilholdem” Batista, Adam Geyer, and
Steve O’Dwyer. “Good news. Guy over 40 sat at the table,” tweeted Carter King.
“Bad news is he is David Pham.” Both King and Mercier survived the day with
close to average stacks.
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| Mark Seif, second in chips | |
Loudmouth Mike Matusow begins Day 2 as the chip leader, followed by Mark Seif and Jason
Somerville. Phil “Unibomber” Laak, Dutch Boyd, Chino Rheem, and Jonathan Little are also near the top of the chip counts. The famous faces
also returning for Day 2 include Phil Ivey, Justin Bonomo, Eli Elezra, Billy Kopp, and John “Razor” Phan.
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| A chipped up Jason Somerville | |
The stacked field only got tougher as more players arrived,
a trend that will continue through the first three levels of Day 2. Phil
Hellmunth, Andy Bloch, and Howard Lederer are still expected to register.
Lederer tweeted early in the day, “Here’s my 1st update for the 15k Bellagio
that started today. I’m happily at home waiting until 5 pm tomorrow to start!
Thanks Jack.” If he buys in at the last possible moment, Lederer will be given
a full stack and start playing with 40 big blinds. Whether it’s their first or
second day at the Bellagio, players will get back into action at 12:00 pm PDT
on Thursday.
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