The Fortieth Annual World Series of Poker Main Event has concluded its round of “Day Ones” with some notable eliminations, a memorable entrance and a rather large controversy.
Among the previous Main Event champions that will not be repeating this year are Tom McEvoy (1983), Huck Seed (1996), Jamie Gold (2006) and Jerry Yang (2007). Other notables who will not see a Day Two include former Players of the Year Daniel Negreanu (2004), Allen Cunningham (2005) and Jeff Madsen (2006). Also, celebrities such as actor/comedian Gabe Kaplan and former baseball pitcher turned broadcaster Orel Hershiser will have to return to their day jobs, as their dreams of WSOP gold came to a halt on Day One.
One former World Champion who knows how to make an entrance is 1989 Main Event Winner Phil Hellmuth. Last year, he entered the tournament area dressed as General George S. Patton. The year before that, he was dressed as a racecar driver. This year, he has truly outdone himself. Check out the video below:
Watch Phil Hellmuth Caesar Entrance at the 2009 WSOP on RawVegas.tv
Our readers can only hope Hellmuth does not suffer the same fate in July as befell Caesar on the Ides of March.
Some players made the strategic decision to wait until “Day 1D” to sign up for the Main Event. With that day selling well over the two thousand seats available and with five hundred players shut out, that strategy seems to have backfired. Many players who tried to register also complained of “special treatment” given to big-name pros over online qualifiers or amateurs who tried to enter late. World Series Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack is reputedly working on a solution to bring these additional players into the field.
Currently, the field is at just under 6,500 players, with a total prize pool of just over US$61 million. As of this writing, the first-prize winner is scheduled to receive over US$8.5 million. Keep checking back with us for more updates on the biggest event in poker!
TO AVOID LEGAL REDRESS UNDER INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT LAW, REPRINTERS MUST CITE THE NAME OF THE ABOVE ARTICLE’S AUTHOR, THE E-MAIL ADDRESS OF ITS EDITOR AND ALL LINKS PERTAINING TO THE PUBLISHING SITES (www.gamblingplanet.org and poker.gamblingplanet.org).
PrintSend to friend
