Bigger Deal

The date being the Fourth of July, players were issued with American (and other) flags as they entered the Amazon Room for Day 1b of the Main Event, which began with a country-n-western version of the US national anthem before reigning champ Jerry Yang intoned the ritual cry of ‘Shuffle up and deal’. Britain’s Victoria Coren and John Duthie, Ross and Barny Boatman were among the teeming hordes up against such former world champions as Tom McEvoy, Robert Varkonyi, Greg Raymer and Jamie Gold.

During the day’s play, two historic anniversaries were noted by WSOP media guru Nola Dalla. McEvoy’s presence reminded us that it was 25 years since the invention of the satellite by then tournament director Eric Drache, enabling 1983 world champ McEvoy to be the first player to win the title via a satellite. Also in yesterday’s field was the record holder for the most consecutive appearances at the World Series : Howard ‘Tahoe’ Andrew, who has played every WSOP since 1974 (and indeed makes a cameo appearance in Big Deal). 

’Tahoe’ holds two bracelets, both in No Limit Hold’em, both won back in 1976. If he were to take down this year’s title, it goes without saying, he would also hold the record for the longest time between bracelets.

Schmoozing my way around the Amazon Room I greeted Britain’s Neil ‘Bad Beat’ Channing, who’s been enjoying a landmark year, before noticing that he’d been drawn at the same table as the Hendon Mob’s Ram Vasawami. ‘Yeah, marvellous, eh?’ smiled Neil, while Ram remained in his private poker cocoon.

WSOP London champion Annette Obrestad has been seen around the Rio, greeting friends and opponents, but remains – at 19 – too young to play in a US casino. With two years to wait for Obrestad’s debut, much attention focused on a young American named Andrew Schoepfer, who was celebrating his 21^st birthday by playing in the main event. Andrew was eliminated early on by his compatriot James McBeth, who was celebrating his 40^th birthday. Score one for the oldies !

Big names started falling fast, with Daniel Negreanu, Andy Black and Ted Forrest among those eliminated in the first level, i.e. the first two hours. The second session saw the departure of Dewey Tomko, Scott Fischman, Kenny Tran and Greg Raymer, the third Ram Vaswani, Jamie Gold, Humberto Brenes, baseball star Orel Hershiser and British poker writer Des Wilson. Fallers after the 90-minute dinner break included Ross Boatman, Tom McEvoy, Kristy Gazes, Kenna James and Lee Watkinson.

Among the day’s survivors was, yes, Aussie cricketer Shane Warne.

Play ended at 1.05 am, with San Franciscan Ben Sarnoff on 177,500 leading the 615 players to have survived Day 1b out of 1,158 starters. On Day 2a they will merge with the 636 survivors from Day 1a. With the starters so far standing at only 2,455, today’s and tomorrow’s fields will have to be much larger to match, let alone beat, last year’s 6,358.

One of them will be your correspondent, who must now go get some sleep before squaring up to Day 1c. Whatever the outcome, you’ll be the first to hear it…