Official Main Event Update: Day 2a Wrap-up and Then Some

Not to steal from Kevin\’s more concise thunder … but I happened to miss Day 2a at the Rio, and for those who have more time, Nolan\’s official report is loaded with filling details — along with plenty of fun (poker-geeky) factoids and historical perspective:



2009 World Series of Poker Presented by Jack Link’s Beef Jerky
Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada

Official Report
Event #57
World Championship
World Series of Poker Main Event
No-Limit Hold’em
Buy-In: $10,000
Number of Entries: 6,494
Total Players Remaining: 607 (+ 2,922 for Day 2-B) = 3,530
Total Net Prize Pool: $61,043,600
Number of Places Paid: 648
First Place Prize: $8,546,435
July 3–November 10, 2009

Tournament Highlights:

Headlines (Day 2-A)

1. World Series of Poker Continues With Start of Day Two

2. Andrew Gaw (Phillippines) is the Day 2-A Chip Leader — Eric Cloutier (Mont Laurier, Quebec) is a Close Second

3. Day 2-B Begins Tomorrow, to be followed by One-Day Recess

The Main Event Continues

— The 2009 WSOP Main Event continued with the first of two flights of the second round, which are jointly designated as “Day Two.” Day One was played over the initial four days of the tournament, which began on July 3rd. Day 2-A and 2-B (Day Two) are played July 7-8.

— Day 2-A began with 1,478 players. The day ended with only 607 survivors.

— This is the 41st day of the WSOP. Play continues for eight more days, plus the finale to be played in November.

— Any player dealt four jacks in this year’s Main Event receives a special prize from Jack Link’s Beef Jerky valued at $100. So far, 22 packages have been given away (through four days), which amounts to about once per two-hour level.

— Play on Day 2-A began on July 7, 2009 at 12:05 pm.

Play on Day 2-A

— Former world champions who continued play on Day 2-A included – “Amarillo Slim” Preston (1972), Johnny Chan (1987/1988), Jim Bechtel (1993), Chris Ferguson (2000), Carlos Mortensen (2001), and Greg Raymer (2004). Chan was eliminated early in the day. Preston and Johnston lasted until much later, but finally busted out during Level 9. Bechtel, Ferguson, Raymer were the only survivors who will come back and play in Day 3. Both are above average in chips. Jim Bechtel is slightly below average. Mortensen will need help as he is low in chips.

— Former WSOP gold bracelet winners who survived and will play on Day 3 included (in decending order by chip count) — Greg Mueller, Phi Nguyen, Mike Sexton, Thor Hansen, Vitaly Lunkin, Burt Boutin, Tom Schneider, San Farha, Farzad Rouhani, Erik Seidel, Bob Sleazak, Keven Stammen, Bill Edler, Ted Lawson, and Roland de Wolfe.

— Notable celebrities who continued play on Day 2-A included – Jennifer Tilly (actor), Shane Warne (world-famous cricket player), Brad Garrett (actor and comedian), Rene Angelil (music manager and husband of Celine Dion), and Jason Alexander (actor and comedian). Warne and Alexander survived and will play on Day 3.

— Poker commentator, ambassador, and former gold bracelet winner Mike Sexton ended the day in good position, with nearly twice the average stack size.

— Nikolay Evdakov, who set the record last year for most cashes in a single year at the WSOP (with 10) was eliminated on this day.

— Wendeen Eolis, who became the first woman ever to cash in the WSOP Main Event in 1986 was eliminated in this day.

— Dewey Tomko, who was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame last year, was eliminated late in the day.

— This was not a good day for writers and journalists. Two of the biggest names in poker publishing, Mike Caro and Barry Shulman, were both eliminated on this day.

— Jack Ury, from Terre Haute, IN was eliminated on this day. It was Ury\’s third straight year to play in the Main Event. At age 96, Ury holds the record as the oldest player ever to compete in a WSOP event.

— Greg “Fossilman” Raymer and Jason Alexander were placed at ESPN’s feature table. Given the two popular celebrities were seated side-by-side, spectator interest was high throughout the day and night. The feature table was even more entertaining due to Raymer and Alexander discussing a variety of topics, and even getting involved in some good-natured banter.

— The the three members of the Brunson Family who participated in the Main Event, Pam Brunson outlasted both Doyle and Todd.

— Two-time gold bracelet winner Tom Schneider, who won the 2007 WSOP \”Player of the Year\” race, survived and will return for Day Three.

— Players competed for five complete levels. Play ended after Level 9. When play resumes at Level 10, blinds will be 600-1,200 with a 200 ante. The average stack size is 97,650.

— Day 2-A started with a field of 1,989 players and ended with 607 survivors. This means only 30 percent of starters survived past the second day.

— Players who survived Day 2-A will return to continue their quest for the 2009 world poker championship gold bracelet and $8.5 million in prize money on July 10th, starting at noon. They will merge into one combined field with the survivors of Day 2-B (which is to be played on July 8th). Day 3 will be the first time this year all players play in the same day.

— Play on Day Two ended at 12:40 am.

Day 2-A Chip Leaders –

— The overall chip leaeder is Andrew Gaw, from The Philippines. Unfortunately, little is known about Gaw at this stage. But media scrutiny and pubic attention thould be fierce upon Gaw when he returns as the biggest stack, barring players surpassing him in the count from Day 2-B (which appears likley).

— Currently in second place (from Day 2-A) is Eric Cloutier, from Mont Laurier, Quebec (Canada). He also has a residence in Lafayette, LA. Cloutier is a former professional ice hockey player. He played a number of seasons for the Louisiana Ice Gators, and was called up for a brief time to the NHL by the Boston Bruins. Cloutier owns a few bars and restaurants in southeastern Louisiana. He has been playing poker regularly on the tournament circuit the last five years.

— In a bizarre coincidence, Eric Cloutier’s end of Day One chip count was initially misreported and he was wrongly identified as the chip leader. The confusion resulted from an extra zero being added to Cloutier’s chip count. The error was discovered and Cloutier’s standing fell from 150,000 in chips to only 15,000 in chips. During the past three days, Cloutier has fended off congratulations from well-wishers. He explained that he was actually very low in chips when play began on Day Two. Incredibly, Cloutier managed not only to survive, but to bypass more than 1,300 players ahead of him in the chip count. He ends up as second-ranked chip leader, proving that the “Cloutier Chip Leader” headline may not have been wrong, but wasn merely premature.

— The highest-ranked former WSOP gold bracelet winner from Day 2-A is Greg \”FBT\” Mueller, from Vancouver, BC (Canada). Mueller is now in 12th-place.

Combined Notes –

— Former world champions still alive in the Main Event include:

Bobby Baldwin
Phil Hellmuth
Jim Bechtel
Dan Harrington
Scotty Nguyen
Chris “Jesus” Ferguson
Carlos Mortensen
Robert Varkonyi
Greg “Fossilman” Raymer
Joe Hachem

— Notable non-pro celebrities still alive in the Main Event include:

Jason Alexander (actor)
Shane Warne (world famous cricket player)
Patrick Bruel (French actor and singer)
Lou Diamond Phillips (actor and singer)
Marlon Wayans (actor)
Shannon Elizabeth (actor)
Jordan Farmar (basketball player)

— Elimination percentages are as follows:

68 percent of the overall starters in this tournament survived the first day.
30 percent of the overall starters survived the second day (so far — subject to change as 2-B has not been included).

— The Top Five chip leaders going into Day 3 are:

1. Andrew Gaw Philippines 386,000
2. Eric Cloutier Quebec 383,000
3. Ed Perry USA 370,000
4. Brandon Demes USA 369,800
5. Miika Puumalanien Finland 361,200

— Of the Top 100 players in chip stnadings, 42 are interntional (non-American) players. Nations amidst the Top 100 includes:

Philippines
Canada
USA
Finland
UK
Sweden
Australia
Denmark
Portugal
France
Netherlands
Ireland
Macedonia
Hungary
Czech Republic
Israel
Switzerland
South Africa
Belgium
Romania

Putting Day Two in Perspective

— In 2008, at the conclusion of Day 2, the eventual champion Peter Eastgate was ranked in 484th place.

— In 2007, at the conclusion of Day 2, the eventual champion Jerry Yang was ranked in 26th place.

— In 2006, at the conclusion of Day 2, the eventual champion Jamie Gold was ranked in 155th place.

— Based on WSOP figures during the mega-era (2006 to present), five out of six Day Two chip leaders have cashed. The previous results are as follows:

2008 2-A – Brian Schaedlich finished in 456th place
2008 2-B – Peter Biebel finished in 273rd place

2007 2-A – Jeff Banghart finished in 41st place
2007 2-B – Gus Hansen finished in 61st place

2006 2-A – Yuriy Kozinskiy did not cash
2006 2-B – Dmitri Nobles finished in 76th place

World Series of Poker Statistics

— The 2009 WSOP Main Event now ranks as the third-largest live poker tournament in history. Only the 2006 and 2008 Main Event championships drew larger numbers. It should be noted that if the Rio had greater seating capacity (Day 1-D sold out), this year\’s tournament would have unquestionably surpassed last year\’s attendance figures.

— The total prize pool for this year\’s Main Event totals $61,043,600. However, this figure is not final. Since interest is added to payouts for players who will constitute the November Nine, the final figure will actually be slightly higher.

— The number of female participants in this year\’s Main Event is estimated to be 187, which amounts to 2.8 percent of the field. There is no official record since entrants are not designated by sex. However, it has been customary in recent years to count every player at the start of Day One (actually all flights A-D) and take a head count of female players. Oddly enough, despite the low percentage of female players, there were three different tables with three females in the tournament.

— All players who make it to the final table this year (the November Nine) will earn at least $1 million. The 2009 world champion will collect $8,546,435 for first place (plus slightly more money in added interest).

— With registration for this year’s Main Event, the World Series of Poker crossed the $1,000,000,000 threshold in total prize money awarded to players. During its 40-year history, the WSOP has paid out $1,041,265,271. Incredibly, more than $600,000,000 has been paid out just in the last five years alone, since Harrah’s Entertainment assumed control of the tournament. Here is the historical prize pool information for the World Series of Poker.

2009 — $174,011,894
2008 — $180,774,427
2007 — $159,796,918
2006 — $159,599,815
1970-2005 — $354,000,000

— This is the 57th and final event on the 2009 WSOP schedule which is played in Las Vegas. Four more gold bracelet events will take place later this year in London, England at the Empire Casino, to be held from September 19th through October 1st.

— Players have come to the WSOP from at least 115 different nations and territories. By contrast, only 80 nations were represented at the most recent Winter Olympic Games.

— This marks the fifth consecutive year the WSOP has been held at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. Prior to 2005, the WSOP was held at Binion’s Horseshoe in downtown Las Vegas. More money has been awarded to winners within the Rio during the past five years than during the entire proceeding 35-year period at the Horseshoe. This is a testament to the expansion of the WSOP since Harrah’s Entertainment assumed ownership and control of the world most prestigious poker event.

Note: All results are now official and may be reprinted by media.