While keeping an eye on Amarillo Slim Preston's table, we caught an interesting hand involving Terry Meyers and an unknown opponent. The final board read and Meyers had pushed all-in for his last 2,100 chips. His opponent studied the cards for a few minutes before committing her tournament life with the call.
Meyers flipped up for trip aces and apparently sitting next to the one and only Amarillo Slim has paid dividends, as Meyers is the one playing like a champion.
During the first half of Day 1 here at the Seniors Championship, we have been lucky to meet plenty of poker enthusiasts who are here at the WSOP not to play cards, but simply to enjoy the festivities. With summertime at the Rio serving as a once in a lifetime chance for many poker fans to rub elbows with their favorite players, railbirds are congregating in hopes of spotting a name player or two.
We ran into one couple who were here in Las Vegas specifically to "see T.J. Cloutier and all the other greats" play the game in the world's premiere tournament series. They were disappointed to learn that Cloutier had busted early in Day 1, saying "well now, I just can't believe T.J. would go broke just yet, he's the best there is."
While this reporter made his way to the Amazon Room, the poker fan couple followed and asked some questions about the WSOP and where they might find notable players to watch. Fortunately for both myself and the couple, Mike "The Mouth" Matusow was quickly spotted among the crowded hallways, and the couple pounced on the pro for a photo opportunity.
While the twenty-minute break continues, the PokerNews reporting desk has been deluged with seniors seeking to plug their electric scooters into our handy power strip. With wall outlets in short supply around the sprawling Pavilion Area, players competing in the Seniors Championship have swamped our little corner of the world to charge up their transportation devices.
A few seniors became a little frustrated that we did not know how their vehicle's plug-ins functioned, but other than that everything went smoothly during the break. While most tournaments usually produce a few young guns wanting to charge up their iPads, for this event making sure their scooter has enough juice is many players top priority.
With a raise to 550 from an under the gun player, the action folded round to a player in the one seat.
One minute. Two minutes. Three minutes. The clock kept ticking as the older gentleman starred into space possibly dreaming of how to alter his beautiful garden when he gets home.
"You know it's on you right?" asked another player on the table.
"Oh shit! I folded in mind" the gentleman chuckled as he pushed his cards to the muck.
"You guys have done that before? Fold in your mind but forget to do it properly!" continued the gentleman.
The table chuckled as play continued with the older gentleman a little embarrassed.
During our rounds throughout the massive tournament area for today's record-setting Day 1, we spotted one chip stack that towered over any that we have seen so far.
Paul Gobbons has built his initial starting stack of 3,000 to over 17,000 chips in just the first three levels of play. When asked how he accomplished this, Gibbons reported that he "got lucky with against a guy with ."
According to Gibbons, the player was extremely tight and after his three-bet from the button before the flop, Gibbons nearly decided to make his standard play of shoving all-in with this hand. He flat called, however, because "in this tournament, against the mainly non-internet players, I have to narrow his range much more here." Gibbons saw a flop with two diamonds and when he caught a third on the turn, his flush had cracked pocket rockets and the rush had begun.
After hearing Gibbons recount the hand in extreme detail, complete with dead-on strategic analysis, we have a feeling he will be more than capable of turning his big stack into a deep run here at the WSOP Seniors Championship.
Both Shirley Williams and the under the gun player committed 525 preflop to see a flop fall.
The first player pushed out a 675-chip bet into Williams only to have her move all in for 3,700.
With Williams' opponent puzzled at her shove, Williams sat there emotionless while staring blankly at the board before her opponent slowly pushed his cards towards the muck.
"Should I show?" asked Williams, but before anyone could respond, she let out a long, "Nahhhhhhhh!"
As Williams dragged the pot to move to 5,725, she will hoping for a deep run here that could potentially result in a WSOP gold bracelet so that she even the score between her and her son David Williams who has a bracelet in the 2006 $1,500 Seven Card Stud event.
In Lon McEachern's final hand, a player limped from middle position and McEachern went all-in for his last 675 from the small. The big blind called, as did the original limper.
The flop came and the big blind checked. The middle position player bet 1,000 and the big blind folded after some deliberation.
McEachern:
Opponent:
The were no help to McEachern and he was sent to the rail.