WSOP Holds First Open Event, Saechao Wins Event 1
The first open event in WSOP 2012, $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em, was held on Monday. When Day 1 of the event came to an end, the chip lead Sadan Turker, whose stack had 158,100 chips, put Eli Elezra, the fan favorite in second place with 155,900. The field had 2,102 players on Day 1, which helped bring the prize pool up to $2,836,350.
Event #2 – $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em
With the third day of play underway at the tournament, a few professional players have caught people’s attention. One of them is Phil Hellmuth, who has twelve bracelets from the WSOP as a testament to his impressive skills in the game. Though many are certain that Hellmuth will land a bracelet in the event, there are others who believe that he will face tough competition from two other professional players – Vanessa Selbst and Chris Vox.
Selbst, has had a spectacular run at the tournament, making her way to be one of the few at the top of the leaderboard. Vox is a player to look out for, as he defends his title in the event. Having made it through the bubble, Hellmuth is looking at his 86th cash at the WSOP. With a stack size of 45,000, he is behind in chip count compared to some of his opponents like Ryan, who has 400,000 – just 5,000 short of the table leader’s (Selbst) stack.
Event #1 Day 2 – Casino Employees Event – Chiab Saechao wins
Chiab Saechao, a blackjack dealer, won the bracelet in the WSOP Casino Employees Championship and took home prize money of $70,859. The bracelet was Saechao’s first in the WSOP. Though he landed the bracelet (1 of the 61 being awarded in 2010) in the event, he stated that he prefers to focus on cash games than tournaments.
In the winning hand, Saechao made a full house which bested his opponent’s queens in a three of a kind. The player against whom he went up in the hand was Patricia Baker, one of the few female poker players to have made it to the final day. When they entered the hand that won Saechao the top prize, Baker was looking at being the first player after Selbst to bag a bracelet in the WSOP.
Some of the events taking place at the 2012 WSOP are – Event #3 – Heads Up No-Limit Hold’em / PLO with a $3,000 buy-in and player field limit of 512 and Event #4 a Seven Card Stud Hi-Low 8 or Better with a $1,500 entry. To read about the events and their winners, click here.