Kevin Tran leads 27 qualifiers through the minefield of day 1c

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event Day 1c was all about expansion. For the first time since the greatest poker event on earth kicked off, we had tables in both the Amazon Room and the Pavilion. The reason we had to expand was the fact that 2,181 entrants sat down to play poker and that total was greater than the combined first two days.

In the Blue area of the Amazon Room Hendon Mobster Barny Boatman was sharing a table with Claire Renault, Renault hoping to emulate her beau Fabrice Soulier, who is one of our 2011 bracelet winners. One of the people trying to emulate Jake Cody, and win the elusive Triple Crown this year, was Roberto Romanello and the Welsh Wizard was also in the blue area.

On the Party Poker qualifying front Arne Riedberger and Florian Schleps were bang on time and Olivier Decamps and Kevin Tran were both rubbing shoulders on table 275. Schleps fighting for his life right from the start when he got it all in with top set versus a made straight before the poker Gods came to his aid with a river from heaven.

More bracelets than a jeweler

Day 1c was going to contain more colours than a rainbow and our next trip was along the purple section. Chris Moorman was having a very successful WSOP but he is going to have a tough day ahead of him with Russell Carson seated two seats to his left. $25k WSOP HU runner up Yevgeniy Timoshenko was here as was Humberto Brenes and recent bracelet winner Fabrice Soulier.

There were plenty of Party Poker presence in the purple area including David Sonelin and David Lenz and it was the latter that got off to a terrible start in the following hand. The board had been laid out by the dealer and it was a very red looking there was 12,000 in the pot and Lenz was staring at a 6,500 bet. He eventually muttered the words “I call” and his opponent flipped over for the flopped flush. Lenz was left with 15,000 after flipping over a rivered set of kings.

The orange section started off with more bracelets than a jeweler. Joe Ebanks, Davidi Kitai, Ted Forrest and Scotty Nguyen all trading blows. Nguyen had his two bracelets on his wrist and must have said “baby” at least ten times during the hand we saw him play. Party Poker Team Pro, Bodo Sbrzesny was sharing a table with the in-form Fin Juha Helppi and Abraham Passet was sat next to someone who could only be described as Super Gran (the lovely lady must have been in her 70’s or 80’s with startling red shades!).

The tan section contained Party Poker qualifier and WPT Paris final tablist Ingo Paulus and also in his section was John Tabatabai and Andy Bloch. Next stop was the Pavilion where we had white and black sections. Only one Party Poker qualifier was in the Pavilion and that was Fatih Dayik but he was in good company, sharing a table with 2009 World Champion Joe Cada. Also working away in the Pavilion were Daniel Negreanu, Eric Seidel, Dan Harrington, James Akenhead, Jimmy Fricke, Dennis Phillips, Jason Mercier and Hendon Mobsters Ram Vaswani and Ross Boatman.

At the end of the first three levels it was Sebastien Regue who was standing out for Party Poker. Regue was facing a raise and a cold-call when he decided to set-mine with pocket three’s. The flop came down [ax][2x] [6x] and all three players checked. The turn was the set Regue had hoped for [3x] and he bet 2,600 and both players called. The river was the [5x] and Regue’s opponent decided to lead with a bet of 9,000, the other opponent folded and Regue made the call, and after showing his set his opponent mucked his cards unseen. Regue was going to dinner with a stack of 70,000 waiting for him whence he returned.

Sparks flew (literally!)

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One player who would not be returning after the dinner break was Ben Spraggons. The youngster was eliminated after his [ax][qx]ran into the slightly taller [ax][kx]on a [xx]board. Spraggons, who started the hand with a little over 10,000, moving all-in as a semi bluff on the turn only to be called by his elder statesman and vanquisher.

David Lenz was another player struggling in the basement. On a board of , faced with a 3,500 bet with only 14,000 behind Lenz made the call. The river was checked through and Lenz showed only to be pipped to the post by his opponents , Lenz languishing on 10,000.

Other Party Poker chip counts heading to the dinner break were Fatih Dayik (30,000), Kevin Tran (39,000), Arne Riedberger (45,000), Fredrik Skoglov (50,000), Peter Nagy (10,000), Marc Etienne Blais (46,000), Torben Meier (30,000), Scott O’Reilly (30,000), Joakim Noren Olsson (23,000), Jonnie Sonelin (34,000), David Sonelin (50,000), Corey Walker (32,000), Robin Ylitalo (37,000) Abraham Passett (45,000), Bodo Sbrzesny (33,000) Ingo Paulus (27,000) and Nicklas Alf (10,000).

Richard Sparks was enjoying himself on table 340 and why shouldn’t he when you run as good as this. Sparks cold-called an early position raise holding pocket queens and must have struggled to hide his excitement when the flop came down [qx][jx][6x]. His opponent c-bet 600 and then Sparks flew (literally!), when he raised to 2,500, his opponent raised to 6,000, Sparks moved all-in and his opponent called with pocket Kings. The board stayed clean and Sparks moved up to a meaty 55,000.

The break came next and then we lost one of the Sonelin brothers. David was recorded as officially AWOL until his brother Jonnie told us that he had busted after running [ax][kx]into [ax][ax]. Jonnie himself was still treading water on 20,000. Ali Essam is in the house – actually Ali Essam will be in the house for another 20-years after winning the WSOP for Life gig that Party Poker offered last year.

Essam, looking smart in his grey suit, was sat on a average stack of 44,000. Kevin Tran was picking up the pace over at table 275 and now had 60,000 but still leading the way was Sebastien Regue with 70,000. Other notable Party Poker chip counts were Florian Schleps (40,000), Jody Howe (40,000) and Richard Sparks on (60,000). Sparks was then moved to a table hosting Ruben Visser and Alex Rousso but neither seemed to have a stack size capable of applying any pressure.

Supergran had left Abraham Passet’s table and Marcel Luske was taken up her seat. Luske biting a chunk out of the Passet stack after getting 5,400 worth of value on the river on a board of holding . Passet was left with a lowly 18,000 after that little tussle.

1,471 players tagged and bagged their chips

Pulling into the final corner of the main event and we had level five. Bodo Sbrzesny still had a stack of 23,000 but it had been far from boredom for the Party Poker Team Pro. He was all-in with [ax][qx]v [kx][kx]and sucked out.

After getting lucky, his opponent lambasted him for moving all-in with a hand as poor as [ax][qx]! Not long after, and Sbrzesny was all-in against the same opponent again with [ax][qx]and his opponent had [ax][9x]! WPT final tablist Ingo Paulus was also grinding the short stack after losing [qx][qx]v [ax][kx]and also a big two pair versus a higher two pair hand – Paulus with 30,000 midway through level five.

Then after ten grueling hours of play it was all over and 1,471 players tagged and bagged their chips after making it through to day two. 27 of those players were Party Poker qualifiers and it was our French qualifier Kevin Tran who was leading the way with 75,000 chips.