2013 World Series of Poker Begins; Tom Marchese Leads Event #2
The man known as “kingsofcards” in online poker circles turned his 15,000 starting stack into one more than 10x that amount over the course of eight 60-minute levels.
The 2013 World Series of Poker (WSOP) has officially started after the first two of its events kicked off inside the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino on Wednesday.
The first event to start was the $500 buy-in Casino Employees No Limit Hold'em. By the time registration closed in this tournament, a total of 896 players had bought in, a significant rise from the 732 entrants in 2012.
Event #1 saw 11 levels played and by the time Day 1 was completed only 55 of those who started had chips to bag and tag. These 55 players return to their seats at 13:00 local time (21:00 BST) knowing they are all in the money and are guaranteed at least $1,325 for the efforts so far.
The tournament will play to its conclusion on Thursday, meaning we will know out first bracelet winner of the 2013 WSOP, a bracelet winner who will also take home $84,915 in prize money.
Top 10 Chip Counts
1st - Michael Trivett: 133,900
2nd - Sean Small: 103,700
3rd - Chad Holloway: 99,400
4th - Wyatt Gibson: 96,900
5th - Kevin Weathers: 91,300
6th - Hieu Le: 87,000
7th - Troy Wilcoxon: 86,700
8th - John Harris: 84,400
9th - Robert Jones: 74,700
10th - Tyrone Smith: 72,000
Event #2: $5,000 No Limit Hold'em Eight Handed
Usually, Day 1 of the WSOP is reserved for the Casino Employees tournament and that event only. This year the WSOP organisers decided to run a $5,000 buy-in No Limit Hold'em event in an attempt to get some of the big guns sat down at the felt from the very minute the 44th Annual WSOP opened its doors.
It is a ploy that seems to have worked because 481 players ponied up the $5,000 buy-into including some of the biggest names in the business such as Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey. Of that trio of superstars only Hellmuth managed to navigate his way through to Thursday's Day 2.
One man who is certainly through to Day 2 is Tom Marchese. The man known as "kingsofcards" in online poker circles turned his 15,000 starting stack into one more than 10x that amount over the course of eight 60-minute levels. Marchese will start Day 2 armed with 153,975 chips.
Marchese's nearest rivals, in terms of chips, are Scott Baumstein on 111,100 and David "Doc" Sands on 110,825. Sands goes into this tournament riding the crest of a wave of confidence having won the World Poker Tour World Championship event last week for a cool $1,023,750 - the second seven-figure score of his career.
Other notables to look out for in this event include Bryan Piccioli (85,900), Antonio Esfandiari (80,650), British pro Chris Moorman (77,825), Vanessa Selbst (58,000), recent European Poker Tour Berlin High Roller champion Griffin Benger (57,950), David Vamplew (53,725), Barry Greenstein (51,200), Mike Sexton (32,300), Scotty Nguyen (21,100) and Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (14,650).
Play in Event #3 resumes at 14:00 local time (22:00 BST) and will continue until 10 levels are in the bag.
Top 10 Chip Counts
1st - Tom Marchese: 153,975
2nd - Scott Baumstein: 111,100
3rd - David Sands: 110,825
4th - Stephen Bokor: 95,325
5th - Darryll Fish: 93,000
6th - Jamie Armstrong: 87,850
7th - Bryan Piccioli: 85,900
8th - Takashi Ogura: 81,650
9th - Antonio Esfandiari - 80,650
10th - John Riordan - 78,275
Prices quoted in copy are correct at time of publication but liable to change.
