Paul Pierce's run in the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event has come to an end. We're unsure if Allan Vrooman plays much basketball, but he just rejected one of the greatest players in the game on this hand.
Action folded to Vrooman and he raised to 3,000. Pierce reraised all in for approximately 18,000. When play folded back to Vrooman, he made the call and the cards were tabled as the production crew rushed to the scene.
Vrooman:
Pierce:
Pierce was in bad shape, but every pro athlete knows how to respond with their back against the wall. Unfortunately, there's not much you can do, but run let the cards out in poker sometimes.
The crowd swarmed the secondary feature table area and the ESPN cameras rolled to get the action. Pierce's number is 34, but he was looking to hit a deuce on this one to stay alive. Just a simple jump shot, right? All Pierce needed to do was get to the elbow and the game would be his as it has been so many times in his career.
The flop came down and Vrooman's defense was pretty good so far. The turn brought the and now it was do or die on the last shot. "Deuce! Deeeuuuccce! DDDeeeeeeuuuucccceeeee!" yelled the spectators and some others in the tournament area close by rooting for Pierce. Pierce was all smiles as the river card was prepared.
The final shot went up, but when it came down it was nothing but a brick with the for Pierce. He was eliminated form the 2011 WSOP Main Event to a giant round of applause from the entire room.
It's not so often that an NBA superstar makes his way to the WSOP felt and Pierce performed very well in his first trip to the Main Event. Back in 2001, Shaquille O'Neal said about Pierce, "Paul Pierce is the (expletive) truth. Quote me on that and don't take nothing out. I knew he could play, but I didn't know he could play like this. Paul Pierce is the truth." Some of the players in this event may be feeling the same way about his poker game as O'Neal did about his basketball skills. Hopefully, we'll see him in many more WSOP events down the road along with many other high-profile athletes.
Since we didn't get a shot of her this year, here's Eolis decked out in last year's Main Event
We've just bid farewell to one of the icons of this game that you may not be as familiar with as you should be. Wendeen Eoils was the first woman to ever cash in the Main Event, finishing in 20th place in 1986, the year that Berry Johnston won it. Since then, Eolis has played the Main Event every year, also cashing in 1993. She's picked up another five cashes in preliminary events, too, the most recent coming two years ago in a $1,500 event.
This Main Event will not be added to her list of poker cashes, unfortunately.
Eolis got her last ~8,000 chips into the middle with pocket nines, and Steve Brecher called her down with . He flopped two pair, and Eoils could not catch up, graciously bowing out here near the end of Day 2a.
Daniel Negreanu started the action, opening to 2,200, and was called by Armenak Kizirian (who took Russell Carson's seat), Tommy Le, and Sorrel Mizzi. The flop fell , and Negreanu led for 5,600. Kizirian moved all in for 58,900, Le quickly mucked, and Mizzi re-shoved.
"Wow," Negreanu said standing up. "I guess I can fold comfortably now."
He open-mucked .
Mizzi:
Kizirian:
"You really scared me," Mizzi told Negreanu, who thought he shot out of his chair because he had the nuts.
Kizirian was already off of the main stage when the turned, and the completed the board, eliminating him from the tournament. Mizzi pulled in the massive pot, and is now over 180,000 chips.
Action folded to newcomer to the table Allan Vrooman. He raised to 2,200 from the hijack seat. Paul Pierce reraised from the cutoff seat to 6,000. Play folded back to Vrooman and he made the call to see the flop. Vrooman checked and Pierce fired 10,000. Vrooman check-raised all in and Pierce folded, leaving himself with under 20,000 in chips.
Action folded around to Phil Hellmuth in the small blind who raised to 2,800. The big blind called and they saw the flop come . Hellmuth bet out 2,800 and the big blind opted to call. When the fell on the turn both players checked and they saw the come on the river. Hellmuth bet 7,000 and the big blind folded but that didn't stop Hellmuth from showing his hand, the .
On the next hand Hellmuth raised to 2,800 from the button and the same player from the previous hand (now in the small blind) re-raised to 7,500. Hellmuth decided to lay his hand down and after these two hands his stack was at 24,000.
A few minutes ago, we broke out of the Pavilion next door, and everyone's over here together in the Amazon Room now. There are 117 tables in play in here, so that gives us 1,053 left in this Day 2a field. That means we've lost almost 1,000 runners today, and the total remaining field is right around 3,500, including tomorrow's Day 2b field.
In those few minutes since they closed the Pavilion doors, we're breaking tables at a break-neck pace here in the Amazon.
Nick Heather is up to 185,000 after he called a three-bet in position on the secondary feature table against the small blind. The rest of the chips went in on a flop, Heather showed for a flopped set against his opponent's . The turn secured the pot for Heather and the river made him quads, eliminating his opponent and putting the Irishman as one of the bigger stacks on this table.
Not longer after we finished writing this post welcoming Shaun Deeb to his new table in Amazon Purple right next to us and about the two players to both sides of him, lo and behold, right on cue a monster pot was brewing. We only saw the action ourselves on the river of the board where Don Nguyen had bet a whopping 70,000 from early position and it was now on Biagio Morciano in middle position.
Deeb saw us watching and filled us in on the previous action in the hand where supposedly Nguyen opened for 2,500 and Morciano three-bet to 6,200. Nguyen called and then check-raised Morciano’s bet of 7,300 on the flop to 22,500. Morciano called the raise and then called Nguyen’s lead of 44,000 on the turn.
This led to the action that we saw on the river where Morciano was now in the tank. He tried to ask Nguyen something about his hand but Deeb pointed out that this wasn’t allowed which the dealer confirmed. Morciano finally leaned back and put his hands to his face before he finally flipped over his for top pair and threw them face-down into the muck.
As Nguyen raked in the pot, Morciano, who is Italian, tried to say something in broken English to Nguyen that neither we nor Nguyen could understand. Deeb however gave his best attempt at translating and said that he thought Morciano meant “If you play a hand that like that for all of your chips, you’ll bust.” Morciano seemed to agree with that assessment and Deeb continued, “He’s Asian, he likes suited cards, he’s wearing smart glasses, not bluffing glasses” referring to Nguyen as the table had a good laugh.
So in case you didn’t catch all of that, while Nguyen took down the big pot, Deeb might have been the star of it as he played the role of field reporter, floor man, translator and jokester. Like we warned you, it was likely that there would be fireworks and we’re glad that we caught them and hope that you are too.
The action folded to Daniel Negreanu who opened to 2,200 on the button. Fred Goldberg put in a three-bet from the small blind, and in the blink of an eye, all the chips were in the middle.
Negreanu:
Goldberg:
There was a brief pause to wait for the ESPN cameras - a pause that Goldberg was not a fan of.
"I'm the one all in," he griped. "Let's just go."
The dealer ignored him, waiting for the camera crew, and once they arrived he fanned a flop of . Goldberg stood to shake Negreanu's hand, basically drawing dead, and the on the turn sealed the deal.
The on the river was but a formality, and Goldberg's 2011 Main Event dreams went down the drain. Negreanu, who has had difficulty all day, was all smiles, and is now flirting with the 100,000 chip threshold.
![[user196616]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
and Vrooman's defense was pretty good so far. The turn brought the 
and now it was do or die on the last shot. "Deuce! Deeeuuuccce! DDDeeeeeeuuuucccceeeee!" yelled the spectators and some others in the tournament area close by rooting for Pierce. Pierce was all smiles as the river card was prepared.
for Pierce. He was eliminated form the 2011 WSOP Main Event to a giant round of applause from the entire room.
. He flopped two pair, and Eoils could not catch up, graciously bowing out here near the end of Day 2a.
, and Negreanu led for 5,600. Kizirian moved all in for 58,900, Le quickly mucked, and Mizzi re-shoved.
.
turned, and the 
completed the board, eliminating him from the tournament. Mizzi pulled in the massive pot, and is now over 180,000 chips.
come on the river. Hellmuth bet 7,000 and the big blind folded but that didn't stop Hellmuth from showing his hand, the 
flop, Heather showed 
. The 
. Goldberg stood to shake Negreanu's hand, basically drawing dead, and the 
on the turn sealed the deal.
