2009 World Series of Poker Day 4 – Running of the Lemurs

Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail

A sea people waiting to play in the $1,000 Stimulus Special

Not too far in the future we will see the start of another brand new event to the World Series of Poker. As a nod to the difficult economic times, the “powers that be” offered up the lowest buyin open event. Event #4 is being called the Stimulus Special and has just a $1,000 buyin. The response has been predictable with long lines and a ton of buzz throughout the Rio.

The interest really spiked when rumors started floating around that Day1a was already set to sell out and Day1b on Sunday going quickly. Players were being told to not wait until that last moment to register or they might get shut out of the tournament. This will most likely be the largest live tournament field outside of a World Series of Poker Main Event. There will be two Day 1′s with near 3,000 players each day.

Just like magic, moments before hitting the publish button I received an email with the following statement:

But the most impressive feat thus far has been the sellout of Event #4 – a $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournament. Billed as a “stimulus special,” it has blown away the then-record 3,929 entrants who participated in a $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em tournament at last year’s WSOP – by selling a capacity of approximately 6,000 entries.

The new mark means the $1,000 event, which features two start days (May 30 and 31), is the largest non-WSOP Main Event tournament ever played. Registration for Event #4 is now sold out, with a maximum capacity of approximately 3,000 players per start day – or 6,000 players total.

6,000 players across two days. I expect quite the spectacle from the moment they start slinging chips. As the next two days go along we will be featuring some of our online qualifiers and track their progress through this monstrous field. Consider this an open invitation to anyone who won their way in via a Full Tilt satellite, let the men with the keyboards and notepads know who you are.

3,000 players in several rooms isn’t the only action we’ll be following. The $40k Event #2 is down to 23 players heading into their Day 3 and the Limit Omaha/8 Event #3 will have 197 players pick up where they left off. There are plenty of Full Tilt pros still alive with Andy Bloch again leading the way.

Chips counts heading into Day 4 after the jump.

The dealers prepare for a busy day before the crowds are allowed to enter

Event #2 No Limit Hold’em
Buyin: $40,000
Number of Entries: 201
Net Prize Pool: $7,718,400
First Place Prize: $1,891,012
Total Spots Paid Out: 27
Players Remaining: 23

1	Bonomo, Justin	2,678,000
2	Forrest, Ted	2,586,000
3	Baker, David	2,367,000
4	Raymer, Greg	2,287,000
5	Veldhuis, Alexander	2,103,000
6	Torelli, Alec	1,725,000
7	Lehr Jr., Keith	1,257,000
8	Lunkin, Vitaly	1,166,000
9	Marafioti, Matt	1,003,000
10	Rast, Brian	912,000
11	Doshi, Suresh	771,000
12	Stern, Daniel	762,000
13	Hamagami, Clark	691,000
14	Glantz, Matt	671,000
15	Townsend, Brian	671,000
16	Schwartz, Noah	541,000
17	Haxton, Isaac	539,000
18	Guaga, Antanas “Tony G”	481,000
19	Chiu, David	318,000
20	Channing, Neil	270,000
21	Black, Andrew	210,000
22	Kassela, Frank	167,000
23	Robl, Andrew	112,000

Event #3 Limit Omaha/8
Buyin: $1,500
Number of Entries: 918
Net Prize Pool: $1,253,070
First Place Prize: $263,135
Total Spots Paid Out: 90
Players Remaining: 197

Top 50 chipstacks:

1	Luu, Thang	73,600
2	Hughes, Ryan	60,500
3	Steelman, Clint	51,100
4	Michaels, Alex	50,500
5	Vaughn, James	49,600
6	Parker, Brock	48,800
7	Robinson, Mark	47,700
8	Brooks, Micah	46,600
9	Arntzen, Sven	44,500
10	Rich, Jordan	43,700
11	Ortiz, Santos	43,200
12	Deguzman, Luis	42,400
13	Brown, Chad	40,500
14	Evdakov, Nikolay	39,600
15	Levitt, Bruce	39,500
16	Bloch, Andy	39,100
17	Smith, Ed	38,500
18	Stann, Dave	38,400
19	Mougous, R.L.	38,400
20	Stoddard, James	37,900
21	Lassen, Morten	37,900
22	Reslock, Ming	37,100
23	Jett, Chip	37,000
24	Elezra, Eli	35,500
25	Pacheco, Chuck	34,700
26	Price, Robert	34,300
27	Cheng, Edward	34,200
28	LaTeano, Stephen	33,300
29	Goldfarb, Robert	33,100
30	Duke, Annie	33,100
31	Koonce, Jason	33,000
32	Kay, Casey	32,700
33	Hellmuth, Phil	32,500
34	Seewald, Jonah	32,500
35	Toledo, Delmiro	32,300
36	Bubalo, Lance	32,300
37	Pappas, Greg	32,300
38	Wilmes, Pat	31,600
39	Ferguson, Marc	30,600
40	Lemirande, Gordon	30,400
41	Nay, Kenneth	29,900
42	Thompson, Martin	29,400
43	Rosenbloom, Barry	29,300
44	Akkari, Andre	28,600
45	Correia, Joaquin	28,600
46	Daneshgar, David	28,300
47	Barbieri, Al “Sugar Bear”	28,200
48	Harmetz, Dan	28,200
49	Ruthenberg, Sebastian	28,100
50	Gold, Ben	27,900