An already short-stacked David Pham raised to 100 from the button. Both blinds called and the flop came . The blinds checked, Pham bet 200 (leaving himself 725 behind), the small blind folded and the big blind called. The fell on the turn and both players opted to check. When the came on the river, the big blind tossed out a yellow T1000 chip which would cover the remainder of Pham's stack.
Pham pondered for around 30 seconds before tossing in his remaining chips. The dealer asked the players to flip their hands and the big blind seemed a bit reluctant to turn over his for a busted straight draw. Pham then tabled his for a pair of jacks and scooped up the pot bringing his stack back up to 2,150.
Teddy "Ice Man" Monroe is here. He took a couple of extra moments upon arrival removing an unsatisfactory chair and replacing it with two new ones, stacked on top of one another.
"All right," exhaled the Ice Man upon sitting down. "I've done wore myself out!" he said with a laugh. "Man, that was brutal."
Chair situation resolved. Now just a few thousand opponents with which to deal.
We just witnessed a hand that shows why the $1,000 tournaments have derisively been dubbed donkaments by poker fans and players alike.
With the flop showing the and the river card a , a player checked and then simply called an opponent's bet. The opponent, Javier Etayo, flipped up two spades for a small flush, and watched his opponent turn over for the nuts. The floor was immediately called and, despite Etayo protesting that he had no problems with the action, the opponent was assessed a one-round penalty for checking the nuts on the river.
The penalized player seemed a bit confused over all the commotion, but he politely offered an apology to Etayo as he left the table. Etayo looked up and smiled sincerely, saying "No man, don't be sorry. Thank you actually, you would have had all my chips if you raise there. I'm actually on a freeroll now!"
Scott Montgomery is here amid the collection of less familiar folks sitting around the tables in the Pavilion Room. Montgomery knows something about negotiating his way through large fields such as this one.
Last summer the Canadian bested a whopping field of 3,102 to win his first WSOP bracelet in Event No. 36, one of the several $1,000 no-limit hold'em tourneys on last year's schedule. Montgomery earned $481,760 for that win, which perhaps serves as an indicator of what kind of first prize today's event may ultimately yield.
Many remember Montgomery as well for another deep run in a large field, his fifth-place finish in the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event that attracted 6,844 entrants (won by Peter Eastgate). Montgomery earned nearly $3.1 million for that final table appearance.
On Day 1, the Pavilion Tournament Area is Packed to the Rafters
With over 2,400 entrants already registered, and that number expected to top 3,000 in the next few hours, the field for Event #45: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em can only be described as massive. Nearly the entire Pavilion area, which is comparable to an airplane hangar in size, is jam packed with tables for this tournament.
In addition, the Amazon Room has almost been filled as well, with even the tan section usually reserved for Deep Stack events being used. The spillover has even forced the removal of an entire bank of video poker machines, situated near Buzio's restaurant, to accommodate even more tournament tables.
Representing one of the last chances for many amateurs to earn some WSOP cash this year, Event #45: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em may attract one of the largest fields we have seen in 2011.
With such a large starting field, players are located just about anywhere the Rio staff can fit a poker table! Here are a few notables we spotted who are currently seated in the Amazon room.
Most tables are still just finishing up their first orbit of hands today, but we've already seen one of those eye-popping hands that defies probability. Then again, it stands to reason, perhaps, with such a large field that something like this would happen to someone.
A player in middle position raised, and Faraz Jaka, sitting to his left, was his only caller. The flop came . Subsequent action saw both players pushing all they could in the center, with the original raiser showing and Jaka . Both had flopped sets, but Jaka's tourney experience in this one appeared destined to be short-lived.
The dealer delivered the turn, the , then the river... ! "You gotta be kidding me," said Mr. Aces, who dejectedly departed.
Jaka not only survives, but now sits with a little more than twice the starting stack with 6,100.
. The blinds checked, Pham bet 200 (leaving himself 725 behind), the small blind folded and the big blind called. The 
fell on the turn and both players opted to check. When the 
came on the river, the big blind tossed out a yellow T1000 chip which would cover the remainder of Pham's stack.
for a busted straight draw. Pham then tabled his 
for a pair of jacks and scooped up the pot bringing his stack back up to 2,150.
![[user38338]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
and the river card a 
, a player checked and then simply called an opponent's bet. The opponent, Javier Etayo, flipped up two spades for a small flush, and watched his opponent turn over 
for the nuts. The floor was immediately called and, despite Etayo protesting that he had no problems with the action, the opponent was assessed a one-round penalty for checking the nuts on the river.
. Subsequent action saw both players pushing all they could in the center, with the original raiser showing 
and Jaka 
. Both had flopped sets, but Jaka's tourney experience in this one appeared destined to be short-lived.
, then the river... 
! "You gotta be kidding me," said Mr. Aces, who dejectedly departed.