LAS VEGAS–I swear we’re following more people than just Josh from Dallas … but his chip stack has hardly changed. What has changed as he’s getting closer and closer to an average stack is the player to his right … now Gus Hansen, who has a similar stack size.
UPDATE: Table changes and a couple all-ins. Read the comments below for any necessary timeline. But overall, Josh is still fine, with the same chip stack he has had for about ever.
UPDATE: From PokerNews:
John Bird Doubles Through Josh Evans
Josh Evans, playing from middle position, opened the pot for a standard raise. Action folded around to John Bird in the small blind who moved all in. Evans called and the players showed…
Evans: {4-Spades}{4-Diamonds}
Bird: {A-Spades}{10-Hearts}
The board ran out {A-Hearts}{A-Diamonds}{5-Clubs}{Q-Clubs}{3-Clubs} and John Bird doubled up to 500,000. Don’t feel bad for Evans just yet, he is still a force with just under 2,000,000.
LAS VEGAS–Josh Evans has lost the chip lead … he’s now 4th, with just fewer than 2 million. With 191 players left, that’s about four times the average stack, so he’s still in very fine position. The chip leader has about 4 million.
UPDATE: Josh is down to 1.7 million … and he’s got a pretty tough table (that looks like it will be broken before the end of the night). At least four people on his table have at least a million, and, he says, “There are three Asians, so they really like to gamble.” Fortunately, he has enough chips that he can play extremely passively and wait out the typhoon, at least for a little while or until conditions change.
UPDATE: Josh’s table has turned rather passive all around. Very few hands played, almost no showdowns. Phil Hellmuth stopped by to wish two players good luck — including one guy who had just been re-raised by Josh … and folded before shaking hands with Phil.
LAS VEGAS–A good way to start the day …
From PokerNews:
Josh Evans Doubles Through Phillip Liou
After a flop of 10c-4s-3d, Phillip Liou bets 100,000, Josh Evans raises to 240,000, Liou pushes, and Evans calls all in for 582,000. Liou shows Ad-As, but Evans has 10h-10s for a set of tens.
The last two cards are 6d-8c, and Evans doubles up to over a million in chips.
UPDATE [3:07 pm pdt]: Josh is the chip leader, with more than 2 million chips. Should he end up on a table with Gus Hansen, he should be in prime shape after years of duking it out with Nic the Straddler. 225 players remaining … $50k guaranteed for all.
LAS VEGAS–Play has ended for the day, and Josh Evans is alive and well with exactly 400,000 chips — a still comfortably above average stack a slightly above average stack (briefly forgot they started with 20,000 this year), but way behind the chip leaders. (Ten players are already above a million.) He was into the 600s for a while, but gave a healthy chunk to the guy on his left. “I hate this table,” he told me. It had on it the aforementioned big stack, Humberto Brenes, Tobey Maguire, and an online phenom/Jackie’s alum I am learning more about named “The Waco Kid.”
Fortunately for Josh, his table was broken as players bagged their chips for the night … so we’ll see where he starts the day tomorrow — 337 players remain.
LAS VEGAS–Josh Evans crossed over … he’s got about 420k. So did Vandy Krouch, also with about 420k. Both guys are guaranteed more than $20,000 … and have a shot at $8.25 million.
There were some other North Texas players I saw on the official roster for today — but not sure of their stati.
Also not sure about Jerry Randack. He was relatively short stacked going into today, and I didn’t see him on first perusal of the remaining 60something tables. (Jerry’s a hard guy to miss.) So it looks grim as to whether or not he survived atmospheric re-entry, but we’re not ready to write him off as dead, yet.
UPDATE: Jerry is dead. I mean not like Eskimo Clark dead or Lady Bird Johnson deceased (God Bless Texas). But the 2007 Pokerati Invitational runner-up is out, finishing just shy of the money. Nice-ish go, Jerry!
Huck Seed, by the way, is near the chip lead — and I’m rooting against him. I dropped him from my fantasy team just two weeks ago — for virtually no reason other than to make room for Danny Wong, who I haven’t even seen at the WSOP. Would hate to see Seed get paid off for my poor fantasy play.
UPDATE: Vandy is out. From one of his friend’s in Dallas:
vandy got popped in 474, set of 6’s and the guy hit his set of Q’s on the turn. That started the popping…anyway very exciting.
Congratulations, Krouch! Way to do North Texas poker proud … and I am sure there are a few folks who are more than happy to see you with an extra $29,883 in your bankroll.
LAS VEGAS–Play is coming to a close for the night, and both Josh Evans and Jerry Randack look like they should make it to Day 3 … where the bubble will get crossed.
Jerry will have his work cut out for him, as he has about 61k chips.
Josh, is still very strong with 306k. He’s got Chip Jett at his table. Previously, his toughest opponent at his table was Carlos Mortenson. “I was scared of him,” Josh says.
The avg. stack is currently 154,000.
LAS VEGAS–Loyal Pokeratizens might know this guy … Josh Evans from Dallas is the Day 1d chip leader, with about 240,000:
(We watched him take down a second-chance tourney last year.)
UPDATE: The fact that I am eating my first Poker Kitchen fruit salad of the entire WSOP right now — just like the one the chip leader is eating! — is testament to the notion that non-online-poker-room endorsements, sponsorships, and product placements really work. Yum.
One of the asses he is currently kicking belongs to Paul Magriel, quack-quack.
With Day 1 (all four of ’em) minutes away from coming to a close done — and almost 2/3 of the field eliminated — various poker dreams and fantasies are really starting to spin in people’s heads … though possibly not in the minds of those who actually have a chance to win it.
