2009 World Series of Poker – Day 2 From the Rail

Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail

“Poker From The Rail” watching poker from the rail

It’s a bit of a misnomer saying “poker from the rail” since this time around I’m sporting a media badge which allows access inside the rail to get the action up close. The above picture is a view of just some of the railbirds during Event #2, that’s a few of the spectators trying to get a view of Phil Ivey who is positioned right up against it. It’s a huge crowd and this is a small event, the major donkaments will make it impossible to get through the crowd.

201 players showed up for the big $40,000 deepstack NLHE tournament, a four day event which will pay the top 27 with first place pocketing just shy of $1,900,000 and a shiny new bracelet. As expected the field stacked with the most famous poker players in the world and obviously there wasn’t an easy table in the field.

Erick Lindgren started off the day with newcomer Vivek Rajkumar. Mike Matusow had a perfect place in the 5 seat to entertain his table. Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan busted early and found himself with Phil Ivey and David “The Dragon” Pham* on his left. Andy Bloch, Huck Seed, John Juanda and Gavin Smith were in their seats from the beginning with Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson and Jennifer Harman as some of the last minute entries.

* Not a real dragon

Obviously there were no easy tables during this event but one stuck out. It also happened to be right up against the rail causing a huge traffic jam in the aisles. Tables began to break and we had a monster group with Scotty Nguyen, Phil Ivey, David Pham, Phil Hellmuth, and Bertrand ‘ElkY” Grospellier. Not a pleasant prospect for the rest of the players.

The big buyin started players with 120k chipstacks with 200/400/50 blinds. You are reading right, they were anteing in the very first level. That generated the early action as we dropped 3 players before the end of Level 2.

It was a steady parade to the rail and by the time play was complete at the end of Level 10 there were just 89 of the starting 201. Some Full Tilt pros took a beating but they are still sporting a healthy contingent. Brian Townsend leads team Full Tilt with ~500,000 courtesy of a double on one of the last hands of the night (AA versus KK). Phil Ivey, Josh Arieh, Andy Black and Huck Seed are sitting with above par stacks and several others including Mike Matusow are still alive with plenty of room to play.

Day 2 of Event #2 will pickup again tomorrow at 2pm PT where they might be able to play down to the money bubble at 27 players. Tomorrow will also kick off Event #3 which is the $1,500 Limit Omaha/8 tournament.

Pictured below is your lonely author’s lonely seat above the massive Amazon Room. This was snapped just before they let the players take their seats. One of the few quiet moments before the constant din of riffled chips.