We caught action between Victor Ramdin and one other player in a hand after a crowd started gathering at the table.
The board had run out . There was already around 6,000 in the pot and Ramdin's opponent had moved all in on the river for 6,600. Ramdin called the clock on himself after tanking for a while. The tournament director came over and set the clock down in front of Ramdin for 60 seconds.
On the very last second, Ramdin folded his cards into the muck. He sits with around 7,000 in chips.
In today's field is Fatima Moreira De Melo, a Dutch field hockey player from Rotterdam who is a member of Team PokerStars Sportstars. To say that her interests are eclectic would be a understatement.
In addition to being a three-time Olympic medalist in field hockey (Bronze in Sydney-2000, Silver in Athens-2004, and Gold in Beijing-2008), she has a Masters degree in Law, has a side career as a singer, makes regular appearance on Dutch TV shows, and plays poker on the side.
To date, De Melo's best WSOP cash was an 18th-place finish in the 2010 $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout. She will obviously be looking to best that result in this tournament.
De Melo is doing well so far and currently has 14,000 in chips.
Recently, a man came to the PokerNews and did something we rarely see players do: he informed us about the crazy hand he had just lost.
Dmitrii Valouev, who was mentioned in a previous update during Day 1, had chipped up to about 10,000 and was holding when the flop fell . Thinking he had hit gin with his flopped set, Valouev got it all-in against a similarly-sized stack after the turn came .
His opponent showed down , however, for quad jacks and an insurmountable advantage. To complete the insult to injury motif of losing with middle set, the dealer revealed the on the river for good measure, giving Valouev a worthless quad tens.
He later made the long walk to our area and shared his bad beat with us. It is likely that he will never forget the hand, as it was immortalized in his phone via a crystal clear photo of the carnage.
Pratyush Buddiga is in field today and although we missed the betting action, we know that in a recent hand, another player ended up all in for his last 1,050 against Buddiga.
Buddiga:
Opponent:
The board ran out allowing the other player to double up and knocking Buddiga's stack down to 6,200.
A player under the gun opened with a raise to 350 and got two callers from middle position and the button, the latter being four-time WSOP bracelet winner David Chiu.
It folded to the big blind who reraised to 1,600, forcing folds all around. The original raiser turned to his neighbor on his right. He had a question for him.
"You beat ace-ten?" he asked. His interlocutor sat silently, clearly uninterested in sharing such information. For him the reraise itself was all he wished to communicate regarding the matter.
"He doesn't speak English," said Chiu, prompting laughter from the others, all of whom had heard him speaking English just fine earlier. "That's what I say when people ask me," said Chiu with a grin. "People don't like to lie," he added, which led to further debate about the many strategies poker players employ to evade the questioning of others.
Walking among the hundreds of tournament tables in the Pavilion Room, thousands of intense poker faces can begin to blur together. One face that happened to catch our attention belonged not to a player, but a dealer in today's first day of play.
Dressed up as the spitting image of Elvis Presley, this dealer even had a name tag adorned with "Elvis" to complete his homage to The King of Rock and Roll.
Victor Ramdin continues to build his stack. He called a raise of 350 preflop from a player in middle position. Before calling Ramdin asked "How are you doing? Don't be nervous. I am nervous too" to his opponent.
The flop ran out and Ramdin's opponent bet 500. Ramdin then made it 1,100 to go and his opponent folded his cards into the muck showing .
We watched a hand recently played between two large stacks, and when the smoke had cleared, Mikki Hirvonen emerged as our new Day 1 chip leader.
After the flop fell in a three-way pot, Mike Wisnoskie led out with a bet of 750 from under-the-gun. This was met by a reraise to 2,250 by Hirvonen, but the fireworks did not end there. The third player in the hand shoved all-in for her stack of 11,000 or so chips.
Wisnoskie then went deep into the tank and began talking to himself, trying to find the right play. "Do I want to go home early or do I want to make a splash?" he asked before eventually tossing his cards away.
Hirvonen did not think nearly as long calling with his with his and announcing "If you got it, you got it.".
His opponent in the hand stood and said "Nope. I'm just on a draw. Wanted to see if you'd flopped your fifth set of the day ... and you did." She showed down her for an open-ended straight draw, but quickly departed the table after the hit on the turn. Hirvonen had filled up, and after the on the river, his full house earned him the huge pot.
While Hirvonen was quiet and reserved in victory, Wisnoskie stood and thrust his arms up in triumph after the hand played out, telling himself "you just made a great laydown!" He told us afterwards that he mucked for an open-ended straight flush draw on the flop. Hirvonen now sits with a castle of over 22,000 chips as we near the midway point of Day 1 action.
A total of 2,849 players have entered the tournament today (so far) and with an entire hour of late registration still go to that number is still likely to rise. Below are the registration totals for the other three $1,000 open No-Limit Hold'em events that have taken place at this year's series.
Since Event #8, registration has dropped with each $1,000 event this year, and unless we get a large surge of players near the end of late registration it looks as though that trend may continue.
Teddy "Ice Man" Monroe's chair, after being carefully selected earlier, is now empty. It appears Ryan Schmidt has been eliminated as well, his chair vacant over at Faraz Jaka's table.
And Jaka, too, has recently hit the rail. Or, as Jaka reported the news of his elimination on Twitter just now, he's...
![[user198140]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
. There was already around 6,000 in the pot and Ramdin's opponent had moved all in on the river for 6,600. Ramdin called the clock on himself after tanking for a while. The tournament director came over and set the clock down in front of Ramdin for 60 seconds.
when the flop fell 
. Thinking he had hit gin with his flopped set, Valouev got it all-in against a similarly-sized stack after the turn came 
.
on the river for good measure, giving Valouev a worthless quad tens.
allowing the other player to double up and knocking Buddiga's stack down to 6,200.
.
in a three-way pot, Mike Wisnoskie led out with a bet of 750 from under-the-gun. This was met by a reraise to 2,250 by Hirvonen, but the fireworks did not end there. The third player in the hand shoved all-in for her stack of 11,000 or so chips.
and announcing "If you got it, you got it.".
for an open-ended straight draw, but quickly departed the table after the 
on the river, his full house earned him the huge pot.
for an open-ended straight flush draw on the flop. Hirvonen now sits with a castle of over 22,000 chips as we near the midway point of Day 1 action.