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Saturday, May 31, 2008

Day 1: The Limit's the thing at 2008 WSOP

By Sarah Polson

It may only be the very first day of the very first event of the 2008 World Series of Poker, but that doesn't mean there isn't already plenty of action already on tap for poker fans.

Event 1, the $10,000 World Championship Pot-Limit Hold'em event, began at noon today as 352 poker players took their seats at the poker felt in the Rio All Suits Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

There was much fanfare to official start the 2008 World Series of Poker, with the UNLV marching band performing inside the Amazon Room before the official "shuffle up and deal!" was given to start the event.

However, it was the sounds of the first cards being dealt that was music to the poker players' ears, especially with more than $3 million on the line with the top 36 players getting paid. At worst, the players who make it into the money will receive $23,161, and the winner will pocket $794,121.

The players who tossed in their ten grand to play are a veritable who's who of the poker world.

If you're looking for a celebrity player, Shannon Elizabeth was on hand sporting the DoylesRoom logo. Other actors turned poker players joining the action were Chad Brown and Jennifer Tilly.

All three stars went supernova quite early, though, and were eliminated. Many top-brand poker pros suffered the same fate as well.

Youngest bracelet winner record holder James Mackay went out early along with Chau Giang, Todd Brunson, Katja Thater, Barry Greenstein, Jamie Gold, Howard Lederer, Scott Clements and Robert Williamson III.

That doesn't mean there aren't plenty of pros still left in the tournament to keep an eye on. Greg Mueller seems to be trying to repeat his run to the final table of the series' first event like he did in 2007. He's low in the chip count, but don't count him out yet.

Other poker pros still in include Eli Elezra, Vanessa Rousso, Mel Judah, Andy Bloch, Allen Cunningham, Bill Edler, Michael Binger, Hoyt Corkins, Josh Arieh, Chris Moneymaker, Eric Lynch, Ryan Daut, David Singer, Jeff Madsen, Andy Black, Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey and more.

Event 1 has already seen some epic battles take place between some big names as well. Chris Moore, winner of the 2008 $10k Wynn Classic ran into Moneymaker in the first level of the day.

After seeing a board of J 7 7 A 8, Moneymaker showed 9 T. Moore shipped a massive stack of chips his way and was down under $10k early in the game.

Hevad Khan took a big hit from Erik Seidel early as well, and David Pham was unable to weather the flurry of poker action brought on by Kevin "Be1OWaBOVe" Saul.

Ship it to me Pham!

Pham opened the hand that would spell his doom and Saul re-popped from a few seats to his left. The action folded back to Pham, who made the call.

After a flop of Q 7 4, Pham led out for $5k. Saul took a minute to think and then called, and the two saw a 7 come down on the turn.

Pham checked and Saul moved to put him all-in. Pham thought over his choices for quite some time and finally made the call. Saul turned over A-Q to Pham's pocket tens. When the river brought an 8, Pham was out.

Now that you've got a taste of the action PokerListings is bringing you straight from the Rio, head to the Live Tournaments section to get more in-depth coverage of the events.

We'll be bringing you live tournament updates, reports, photos, videos and more for all 55 events of the 2008 World Series of Poker.