Before reading our report below, you may want to have a look back at Main Event day 5 or Main Event day 6.  You can also try and qualify for the 2012 WSOP.  The best place to qualify is Bodog Poker. Use this link to get up to $1100 in free poker money from Bodog.

2011 WSOP Final Table and Chip Counts
Martin Staszko 40,175,000
Eoghan O’Dea 33,925,000
Matt Giannetti 24,750,000
Phil Collins 23,875,000
Ben Lamb 20,875,000
Badih Bounahra 19,700,000
Pius Heinz 16,425,000
Anton Makiievskyi 13,825,000
Samuel Holden 12,375,000

Players Eliminated in Day 8 (With Payouts)
10 John Hewitt $607,882
11 Khoa Nguyen $607,882
12 Bryan Devonshire $607,882
13 Konstantinos Mamaliadis $478,174
14 Scott Schwalich $478,174
15 Andrey Pateychuk $478,174
16 Ryan Lenaghan $378,796
17 Sam Barnhart $ 378,796
18 Kenny Shih $378,796
19 Aleksandr Mozhnyakov $302,005
20 Gionni Demers $302,005
21 Chris Moore $302,005
22 Lars Bonding $302,005

As you can imagine, there were tons of big stories from day 8 of the World Series of Poker Main Event.  With 22nd place taking home over $300,000 and first place taking home over 8.5 million, the tension was thick all day long.  Below we will present what we think are three of the biggest stories from day 8 of the 2011 WSOP.

Hewitt Makes Worse Call in WSOP History?
John Hewitt will forever be remembered for his terrible call with ten players left in the 2011 Main Event. The hand occurred against the tightest player remaining, Badih Bounahra. Though this hand didn’t eliminate Hewitt, it left him crippled. He would be eliminated soon after.

John Hewitt opened the pot with a raise to 1.1 million.  Badih Bounahra moved all in for 9.3 total.  After a bit of tanking Hewitt finally called and tabled K-Q. Wow, what? Call an 8 million chip raise against the tightest player at the table? Calling this hand on the November 9 bubble?  Bounahra tabled K-K, with the only surprise being it wasn’t aces.

This hand from the 2011 Main Event will go down as one of, if not the, worst calls in the World Series of Poker. We will never know for sure, but Hewitt likely makes the final table if he doesn’t make this call.  The bubble from 10th to 9th is huge in the Main Event. All of the players are heavily promoted for a few months until they return for play in November.  This was a blowup of epic proportions.

Staszko Runs 6.4 Million into Over 40 Million
Martin Staszko is perhaps one of the least talked about chip leaders in Main Event history. He started the day on a short stack of 6,380,000. He ended the day as the chip leader with over 40 million. His chip lead is more than 6 million, and he has almost double the chips of 5th place Ben Lamb.

To make such a move on day 8 of the World Series of Poker Main Event is incredible.  Staszko played excellent poker all day and all night. He was a beast at the table, and the rest of the players seemed to fear him.  His reads seemed to be spot on all day, as he raised and re-raised his way into the chip lead.

Pius Heinz Huge Suckout Leads to 2011 Final Table
Unfortunately for John Hewitt this is our second of two stories that include him. This one didn’t end well for him either, though he got his money in great. The other half of this story is Pius Heinz. I have to say I have been rooting for Heinz. I watched most all of the broadcasts, and I thought Heinz played great poker up until this point.

However, Heinz got it in really bad on this hand. In this hand Hewitt opened with a raise to 650,000. Heinz then reraised all in for 8.06 million.  Hewitt called and revealed A(hearts)-K(spades).  Heinz revealed K-J of clubs and was in terrible shape.

The flop was a pretty good one for Heinz. It was 10-8-7 with one club and two hearts. Heinz picked up a straight draw, and a backdoor flush draw. He could win with a 9, a jack, or running clubs.

The turn was a bad one for Heinz as the 6 of hearts hit the felt.  This card meant that the 9 of hearts or Jack of hearts were no longer good cards for Heinz. Both of those cards would now complete the flush for Hewitt. This left Heinz drawing to five outs. The only cards that could help him were three of the nines (diamonds, spades, and clubs) and two of the jacks (spades and diamonds).

The river was dealt, and it was the nine of diamonds.  Heinz had been on the brink of elimination, but was now up to almost 17 million.  Hewitt dropped down to 18 million and continued to tumble until the blowup we listed above.

You may also want to try and qualify for the 2012 WSOP.  The best site to qualify is Party Poker. Visit Party Poker now and claim a $500 sign up bonus by using the bonus code BIGPLUS. Party does not accept US poker players, so players from the US may want to try Bodog.

Chip Counts after Main Event Day 7
Anton Makievskyi 21,045,000
Eoghan O’Dea 19,050,000
Khoa Nguyen 16,435,000
Andrey Pateychuk 16,245,000
Ben Lamb 14,690,000
Phil Collins 13,805,000
John Hewitt 13,265,000
Ryan Lenaghan 10,415,000
Matt Giannetti 8,920,000
Konstantinos Mamaliadis 8,195,000
Pius Heinz 7,510,000
Aleksandr Mozhnyakov 7,075,000
Scott Schwalich 6,920,000
Martin Staszko 6,380,000
Bryan Devonshire 6,190,000
Sam Barnhart 4,935,000
Samuel Holden 4,740,000
Gionni Demers 4,655,000
Kenny Shih 4,530,000
Lars Bonding 4,140,000
Badih Bounahra 3,835,000
Chris Moore 3,040,000

Notable Players Eliminated in Day 7
Tom “tommyboy” Koral
David Bach
Erick “Edog” Lindgren
Tony Hachem (brother of former Main Event Champ Joe Hachem)
John Esposito
David “Doc” Sands
Erika Moutinho (girlfriend of Doc Sands)
JP Kelly

Top Story from Day 7 – Boyfriend/Girlfriend Combo Eliminated
Erika Moutinho and her boyfriend David “Doc” Sands were both still alive at the beginning of Day 7 of the Main Event. This was an incredible story that unfortunately came to an end on Day 7. Sands was eliminated from the 2011 WSOP in 30th place, and his girlfriend Erika was the next player eliminated in 29th place.

They were quite the story during this year’s Main Event. On Day 7 they spent most of their time together at the featured table.  Not only that, they were seated side by side at the table. They only played one small pot together, with Moutinho raising from the small blind and taking down the big blind of Sands.

Both were knocked out with similar holdings.  Sands pushed all in before the flop with J-10 and was called by A-J, and received no help. Moutinho pushed all in with Q-10 and was called by A-Q, and like Sands she received no help.

Though I’m sure they were both disappointed not to advance further, they put on quite the show.  They took home a combined half a million for their WSOP runs. I look forward to following them both in the 2012 Main Event.

Story to Watch for Day 8 – The International Flair
Over the last few years the Main Event of the World Series of Poker has become an international affair. This has been especially true in 2011 as you see players from all over the world making deep runs in the Main Event. Poker is truly becoming more of an international game.

The top of the leaderboard contains players from four different countries. Leading the pack is Anton Makiievskyi from Ukraine, followed by Eoghan O’Dea from Ireland.  Third place in the chip counts is Khoa Nguyen from Canada, and fourth in the chip counts is Andrey Pateychuk from Russia.

This international flair is great for the game of poker.  Poker is already huge in the United States, and has been growing rapidly in other parts of the world.  This great showing for international players is sure to help poker grow even more overseas.  I would love to see a November Nine with players from four or five different countries.

You may also want to read our Day 5 report or our Day 4 report. If you want to try and qualify for the 2012 Main Event check out Party Poker or Bodog Poker.  Please note that Party Poker does not accept American players.

Top Main Event Day 6 Chip Counts
Ryan Lenaghan 12,865,000
Ben Lamb 9,980,000
Matt Giannetti 7,940,000
Andrey Pateychuk 7,255,000
Phil Collins 7,240,000
Hilton Laborda 7,160,000
Nelson Robinson 6,420,000
Tri Huynh 6,295,000 295,000
Aleksandr Mozhnyakov 6,070,000
Bryan Devonshire 5,970,000

Notable Players Advancing from World Series Day 6
JP Kelly (Team PokerStars Pro)
Tom “tommyboy” Koral
Lars Bonding
David “Doc” Sands
Erika Moutinho (girlfriend of Doc Sands)
Andrew Brokos (Team PokerStars Pro)
Tony Hachem (brother of Main Event champ Joe Hachem)
Erick “Edog” Lindgren
David Bach
Steve Brecher
Frank Sinopli
Minh Nguyen

Notable Players Eliminated During Day 6
Jean-Robert Bellande
Allen Cunningham
Peter Feldman
Joseph Cheong (final table last year)
Sami “LarsLuzak” Kelopuro
Eli Elezra
Aaron Jones
Sorel Mizzi
Christian Harder
Darryl Jace (2nd in chips after Day 3)
Claudia Crawford
Amanda Musumeci

To begin the day there were three women remaining in the field. As you can see by the above notable eliminations both Claudia Crawford and Amanda Musumeci were eliminated during Day 6.  That means that there is one woman moving on to Day 7 of the 2011 World Series of Poker.  She is the better half of our top story from Day 6.

Top Story WSOP Day 6 – Girlfriend and Boyfriend Advance in Main Event
Doc Sands and Erika Moutinho have both advanced into Day 7 of the 2011 World Series of Poker. This is the longest that I can remember any boyfriend/girlfriend or husband/wife pair lasting in the Main Event. For a short time they were both seated at the ESPN featured table together. I imagine that is a pretty special experience getting to play with your significant other on live television.

Erika Moutinho began the day with 878,000 in chips. By the end of the day she had chipped up to over two million.  To see Erika check out the Wicked Chops Erika Moutinho gallery. Coming into the Main Event Erika only had one live poker tournament cash. She finished 416th in a smaller no limit holdem even at this year’s World Series of poker. The cash in that tournament was for $1812, and she is already guaranteed at least $130,997 in the Main Event.

Erika was taught how to play poker by her longtime boyfriend Doc Sands. Doc will start play in Day 7 with a little over 2.7 million in chips.  David “Doc” Sands has a much more extensive poker tournament resume, with over a million dollars in cashes.  The Main Event will be the 5th cash for Doc Sands in the 2011 World Series of Poker.  His best finish in this year’s WSOP was third place in a pot limit Omaha event for $113,000.

It was already a successful WSOP for Sands, but this experience is undoubtedly a once in a lifetime event.  It would make for some really great theater if both Sands and Moutinho could advance to the final table. I think that a lot of people will be rooting for them. I know that I will be.

You may also want to qualify for the 2012 World Series of Poker. The best site for non US players to qualify is Party Poker. The best site for those living in the United States is Bodog Poker.

Top Main Event Day 5 Chip Counts
David Bach 4,706,000
Pius Heinz 4,699,000
Kyle Johnson 4,654,000
Phil Collins 4,109,000
Ben Lamb 4,032,000
Aleksandr Mozhnyakov 3,462,000
Sebastian Ruthenberg 3,354,000
Lars Bonding 3,352,000
Bryan Devonshire 3,292,000
Thomas Grey 3,262,000

Notable Players Moving on From WSOP Day 5
Joseph Cheong (final table in Main Event last year)
Allen Cunningham (multiple bracelet winner)
Erick Lindgren (former WPT Champ)
Ben “run like God” Lamb (on fire during 2011 WSOP)
Aaron (aejones) Jones (online player)
Christian Harder (online turned live poker pro)
Sorel Mizzi (cheater)
Eli Elezra (live cash game player)
Jean Robert Bellande (super degen)
Tony Hachem (brother of former Main Event champ Joe Hachem)
Sami “LarsLuzak” Kelopuro (online player)

Notable Players Eliminated in Day 5
Daniel Negreanu
Freddy Deeb
Kevin Saul
“Miami” John Cernuto
Jon Turner
Mark Newhouse
Carter King
Peter Jetten
Alex Kamberis

There are also three women advancing into Day 6 of the 2011 World Series of Poker. The three women remaining in the Main Event are Claudia Crawford, Amanda Musumeci, and Erika Moutinho. It would be great for poker if one of these women could advance to the November nine.

There has only been one woman to ever advance to the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event. Barbara Enright made the final table in 1995. There hasn’t been a woman to advance to the final table in the post Chris Moneymaker days. The fields have been much, much larger since Moneymaker took home the title in 2003. It would be quite the feat for a woman to make the final table in 2011.

Top Story from WSOP Day 5 – Chipleader Implodes
Coming in to Day 5 of the 2011 World Series of Poker the chip leader was Manoj Viswanathan. He came into the day with 2,115,000 in chips. He was the only player to begin the day with over 2 million chips. He would not make it to the dinner break in Day 5.

This blowup was one of epic proportions, and it was shown on live television (actually with a 30 minute delay) on ESPN2.  It was painful to watch, and I felt really badly for Manoj while watching this trainwreck in progress.

He got his chips in the middle while behind time and time again.  He was attempting silly bluffs, and making silly calls.  He looked extremely uncomfortable during the broadcast on television.  I can’t imagine what he felt like after the meltdown was complete.

It was clear to those watching that the rest of the players were licking their chops. He was isolated repeatedly, as every other player at the table felt comfortable they could outplay him in a heads up pot.  Hopefully Manoj can learn something from this Day 5 performance, and come back to the 2012 WSOP ready to play.

Top Chip Counts from Main Event Day 4
Manoj Viswanathan 2,115,000
Sam Barnhart 1,925,000
Pius Heinz 1,887,000
Stephane Albertini 1,867,000
Daryl Jace 1,849,000
Lars Bonding 1,813,000
Kyle Johnson 1,761,000
Matthew Kay 1,756,000
Mazin Khoury 1,707,000

Players Advancing from 2011 WSOP Day 4
Bryan Devonshire
Ben “benba” Lamb
Daniel Negreanu
Jean-Robert Bellande
Mark Newhouse
Peter Feldman
Joseph Cheong (final table last year)
Eli Elezra
Sorel Mizzi
Tony Hachem (brother of former champ Joe Hachem)
Allen Cunningham
Erick Lindgren
Sami “LarsLuzak” Kelopuro
Freddy Deeb
Peter Jetten
Tom “tommyboy” Koral
Jon “pearljammer” Turner
David Levi

Notable Eliminations from World Series Day 4
Vanessa Rousso
Robert Varkonyi (past Main Event Champ)
Todd Brunson (son of poker legend Doyle Brunson)
Bryan “The Icon” Micon
Dennis Phillips
Phil Hellmuth
Jeffrey Lisandro
Humberto Brenes
Berry Johnston (cashed in at least one WSOP tournament for 30 consecutive years – streak ended this year)
Shannon Shorr

Visit Bodog Poker now for your chance to qualify for the 2012 World Series of Poker. Get a 110% up to $1100 bonus on your first deposit.

Top Story from World Series of Poker Day 4 – Rousso on a Yo Yo
Day 4 of the 2011 World Series of Poker is a day Vanessa Rousso would probably like to forget. Rousso started the Day with an above chip stack of 298,500. She was quickly able to build her chip stack up to over a million, vaulting her into the top ten in chips. Vanessa Rousso looked primed to make a deep run in the 2011 Main Event.

Then disaster struck for Rousso.  She lost three big hands that led to her busting out of the World Series of Poker in 511th place.  This was truly a shocker for someone that had vaulted into the top 10 in chips.  All three big hands were lost to the same person, David Bach. Summaries of the 3 big hands can be found below.

• Bach gets it all in preflop with pocket aces and is called by the Ace-King of Rousso. The aces hold for Bach and Rousso loses about 200,000 on the hand.
• Bach gets it all in on a flop of 10-9-6 rainbow holding Q-J. Rousso calls with pockets sixes as she had flopped a set. Bach nails the straight on the turn to take another 450,000 from Rousso.
• Rousso is now down to 273,000 as the action heats up on a board reading 5-J-6-9. Rousso gets it all in with Q-J and and is up against the pocket aces of Bach. The aces hold and Rousso is sent packing.

This was an amazing and extremely fast crash to busto for an experienced player like Rousso. She got it in good one hand with the set of sixes, but was obviously far, far behind in the other two hands. The ace-king loss was unfortunate and was probably the correct play, but Rousso has to be kicking herself for the Q-J offsuit hand.

Day 5 action is now underway at the Rio in Las Vegas.  It is sure to be an entertaining day as there are plenty of big name players left in the field.  Come back tomorrow to check out our recap of today’s action.

PokerStars.com still has quite a few of their sponsored players remaining in the Main Event field. Some of them are Martin Hruby, Daniel Negreanu, JP Kelly, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Tony Hachem, and Vanessa Rousso. You can qualify for the 2012 Main Event at PokerStars. Click through to see the PokerStars marketing code presented by PokerNews.com that will get you some exclusive bonuses.

Day 3 of the WSOP Main Event started with 1,864. At the end of the day the field had been whittled down to 852 players. There will be 693 players that make the money. The money bubble should pop about halfway through Day 4. Below you will find a full report of WSOP Day 3. You will find top chip counts, notable players moving on, and notable eliminations.

Top Day 3 WSOP Main Event Chip Counts
1 Patrick Poirier 1,328,000
2 Darryl Jace 1,282,500
3 Chris Kwon 944,500
4 David Barter 917,500
5 Scott Smith 896,500
6 Sebastian Ruthenberg 889,000
7 Chris Bonita 859,000
8 Daniel Retallick 858,500
9 Brian Park 820,000

Notable Eliminations From Main Event Day 3
Jason Alexander (from Seinfeld fame)
Brad Garrett (from Everybody Loves Raymond fame)
Shaun Deeb
Jason Mercier
Jamie Gold
Tom McEvoy (former Main Event champ)
Joe Cada (former Main Event champ)
Annette Obrestad
Matt Savage (premier tournament director)
Todd “DanDruff” Witteles
Patrik Antonius

Survivors From World Series Day 3
Phil Hellmuth
Warren “Greg” Fund (affectionately know as “Poker Star”)
Erick Lindgren
Vanessa Rousso
Daniel Negreanu
Humberto “The Shark” Brenes (just busted early in Day 4)
Bryan “The Icon” Micon
Kevin Saul
Ben Lamb
Peter Jetten
Thomas “tommyboy” Koral
Mark Newhouse
Shawn Keller
Freddy Deeb
Allen Cunningham
Shannon “BluffForRent” Shorr
David Chiu
Peter Feldman
Taylor Caby
Alex Kamberis
Robert Varkonyi (former Main Event champ)
Jeff Madsen
Eli Elezra
Jean Robert Bellande

Top Story from WSOP Day 3 – The Donks Strike Back
In poker, bad players are typically known as donks. Sometimes good players even make donkish plays. With a field the size of the Main Event you will see your fair share of donkstrikes. I don’t mean kings beating aces or something that is unavoidable. I’m talking about doing something obviously bad that ends up working out well.

Shaun Deeb was victim of a huge donkstrike in Day 3 of the WSOP.  Shaun had built up a stack of over 200,000 when he was crippled in an epic donkstrike.  The hand summary is below.

• Player raises to 4,600
• Shaun Deeb raises to 15,600
• Heinzelmann raises to 31,300 (original raiser folds)
• Deeb five bets to 68,600
• Original raiser 6 bet shoves for about 150,00 total
• Deeb calls the additional 80,000 and change

Looks like your classic aces versus kings hand right? Half right anyway as Deeb rolls over aces.  Heinzelmann rolls over Ace-6 offsuit. Say what?  Heinzelmann flops one six, and hits another one on the river.  Deeb was crippled in the hand and ultimately eliminated a few minutes later.

Your second chipleader from Day 3 was the beneficiary of a huge donkstrike. Daryl Jace won a humongous pot by getting all the money in preflop by calling off with pocket deuces. The action is recapped below.

• Jace opens for 2,700
• Billy Paradiso 3 bets to 22,000
• Don Nguyen 4 bets to 52,300
• Jace 5 bets to 130,000
• Paradiso 6 bet shoves all in for over 400,000 total
• Nguyen fold and Jace calls

Paradiso rolls over pocket kings and Jace rolls over pocket deuces. Say what? Both players started the hand with over 400,000 and Jace was content to call all in with pocket deuces.  Jace of course flops the deuce to send the other player packing.  Jace looks like the prime candidate to throw away a big stack in Day 4.

Day 2b of the 2011 World Series of Poker started with 2031 players. At the conclusion of play there were 1043 players that survived Day 2b. These players will be combined with the 823 survivors from Day 2a. There will be a total of 1866 players that begin Day 3 on Thursday.

Qualify now for the 2012 WSOP by visiting Cake Poker and using the sign up code EZBONUS. You can also check out some of the Mac friendly casinos for casino action.

Top Chip Counts After World Series Day 2b
1 Ben Lamb 551,600
2 Kevin Saul 542,200
3 Ryan D’Angelo 462,300
4 Nicolas Fierro 405,000
5 Narendra Banwari 404,800
6 Dong Yang Yan 383,400
7 Patrik Antonius 361,000
8 Joshua Gibson 355,100
9 Joshua Weizer 349,600

Big Names Moving on From Day 2b
You don’t have to look much further than the leaderboard to see some notable names moving on to Day 3 of the 2011 World Series of Poker. Perched atop the chip counts is the red hot Ben Lamb. Known in the poker world as benba, Lamb has been on fire during the 2011 WSOP. He is joined in the top 9 by online and live pro Kevin Saul. The most notable player in the top 9 is without a doubt Patrik Antonius. Antonius has played some of the biggest cash games around the world, and has repeatedly hit big scores in tournaments as well. Other notables can be found below.

Justin Bonomo
Tony Hachem (brother of past Main Event Champ Joe Hachem)
Shawn Keller
Jeff Madsen
Joseph Cheong (3rd place in last year’s Main Event)
David Oppenheim
John Racener (runner up in last year’s Main Event)
Matt Savage (famous tournament director)
Lyle Berman
Thomas Keller (brother of Shawn Keller from above)
Galen Hall
Jean-Robert Bellande
Robert Varkonyi (former Main Event Champ)
Allen Cunningham
Todd Brunson (son of Doyle Brunson)
Carlos Mortensen (former Main Event Champ)
Huck Seed
Isabelle Mercier
Lee Watkinson
Sam Simon (Simpson’s creator)
Erick Lindgren

Notable Eliminations from WSOP Day 2b
Joe Hachem (former Main Event Champ)
J.C. Tran
David “Devilfish” Ulliot
Eric Mizrachi (brother of Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi)
Jamie Gold (former Main Event Champ)
Paul Wasicka
Alec Torelli
Phil Galfond
Kathy Liebert

Top Story of WSOP Day 2b – Edog Runs it Up
Erick Lindgren started Day 2b of the World Series of Poker with a paltry 3,700 chip stack. It looked like it would be an extremely short day for Lindgren, but he put together an amazing comeback. He finished the day with 170,300. That is almost 50 times what he started the day with. He went from being close to busto to being a contender when Day 3 begins on Thursday. In 10 tries in the Main Event, this is the first time Lindgren has advanced to Day 3.

Top Story Honorable Mention – Ben Lamb Continues Heater
Ben Lamb will be the chip leader when play begins on Day 3 with a humongous stack of 551,600. We really shouldn’t be surprised, as Lamb has been on fire during the 2011 WSOP. Some of his notable finishes in this year’s Series are listed below.

2nd in Pot Limit Omaha for 259,918
1st in Pot Limit Omaha for 814,436
12th in NLH 6 Max for 56,140
8th in 50k Players Championship for 201,338

One word can be used to sum up Lamb’s 2011 WSOP. Wow.

2011 WSOP Day 1a
2011 WSOP Day 1b
2011 WSOP Day 1c
2011 WSOP Day 1d

Day 2a of the World Series of Poker began with 2031 players.  When play ended for the day there were 822 players remaining.  Look for about 900 players to advance from Day 2b today, which will make for about 1700 players remaining at the beginning of Day 3.  Below you will find top chip counts from Day 2a, notable players advancing, and some high profile exits.

Top Chip Counts from Day 2a of the WSOP
1 Aleksandr Mozhnyakov 478,600
2 Tuan Vo 434,500
3 Guillaume Darcourt 410,500
4 Stephane Albertini 400,100
5 Wilfried Haerig 366,000
6 Massimiliano Martinez 355,000
7 Mike Sowers 347,700
8 Christopher Moore 328,600
9 Brendan Taylor 317,500

Notable Players Advancing from Day 2a
Phil Hellmuth
Daniel Negreanu
Jason Alexander (George from Seinfeld)
Brad Garrett (from Everybody Loves Raymond)
Jason Mercier (extremely annoying tweeter and “poker pro”)
Shaun Deeb
Peter Feldman
Dan Shak
“Miami John” Cernuto
Humberto Brenes
Todd “Dan Druff” Witteles
Eli Elezra
Tom McEvoy (Former Main Event Champ)
Christian Harder
Adam Junglen
Ted Forrest
Joe Cada (Former Main Event Champ)
Shannon Shorr
Lee Childs
Sorel “The Cheat” Mizzi
David Gray

Notable Eliminations from 2011 WSOP Day 2a
Paul Pierce (Boston Celtics star)
Daniel Cates (online superstar)
Filippo Candio (final table in last year’s Main Event)
Lex Velduis
Andy Bloch
Barry Shulman (owner of Card Player Magazine)
Barny Boatman
Marco Traniello (husband of pro Jennifer Harman)
Marcel Luske
Andrew Robl
Gavin Smith
Soi Nguyen (final table last year in the Main Event)
Phil Gordon
Johnny Chan

Top Stories From 2011 WSOP Day 2a
The top story from the day has to be the ups and downs of Phil Hellmuth, and I don’t just mean his chips. Phil Hellmuth was initially a no show for Day 2a of the World Series of Poker. Apparently he thought he was supposed to play on Day 2b rather than Day 2a.

Luckily for Hellmuth his friend Mike Matusow noticed that Hellmuth was absent. He called Hellmuth’s cell phone, but the phone was turned off. He attempted to call his room, but Hellmuth had the front desk block calls to him. After some Matusow pleading, his call was eventually put through to Hellmuth’s room. But still no answer.

Matusow finally convinced the hotel security to break into Hellmuth’s room. They woke him and informed him that he was supposed to be at the Rio. Hellmuth got dressed quickly, and hopped in his car for the ride over to the Rio.  By the time he arrived, Hellmuth’s already short stack had been blinded down to below 7,000. By the end of the day he was able to run his stack up to a respectable 64,900. If Hellmuth hits a big score he will definitely owe Matusow a huge favor. Maybe a stake into a tournament, or possibly a bag of coke?

If you want to try and qualify for the 2012 Main Event click through to either Party Poker or Cake Poker. The best bonus code for Party is BIGPLUS, and the best signup code for Cake Poker is EZBONUS. If you want to improve your game, please read up on how to play poker at mypokerbasics.com.

Number of Players Entering Main Event Day 1d
2011 – 2802
2010 – 2391

As you can see the number of players increased for Day 1d at the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event. This is good, as all three previous day 1′s had fallen below last year’s totals. The 2802 players in Day 1d brought the total number of Main Event entrants to 6865. This was a drop from last year’s Main Event total of 7319. Though their was a decrease year over year, the 2011 Main Event was still the third largest in the history of the World Series of Poker.

Top Chip Stacks from WSOP Day 1d
Mory Little 179,450
Ben Mintz 176,875
Roj Vohra 167,450
Dax Mellon 161,325
Antony Lellouche 155,200
Harambos Tsivicos 147,850
Brett Flood 145,800
Jay Houston 141,000
Jeff Frerichs 139,675

Former Main Event Champs Moving on from World Series Day 1d
Huck Seed
Jamie Gold
Berry Johnston
Robert Varkonyi
Joe Hachem

Other Notables Advancing from WSOP Day 1d
Bryan “The Icon” Micon
Warren Fund (known better by Greg or simply “Pokerstar”)
Lyle Berman
Shawn Keller
Freddy Deeb
Peter Jetten
Danny Mizrachi
Victor Ramdin
Noah “Exclusive” Boeken
Matt Matros
Kristy Gazes
David Oppenheim
Minh Nguyen
Vanessa Rousso
Taylor Caby
Jeffrey Lisandro
J.C. Tran
Matt Savage
Men Nguyen
Kathy Liebert
Jennifer Harman

Notable Exits from Day 1d
Tom “durrrr” Dwan (reportedly eliminated in first 90 minutes)
Melanie Weisner (poker cutie)
Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari
Nelly (yes that Nelly)
David Williams (Main Event runner up to Greg Raymer)
Jennifer Tilley
John Juanda
Bertrand Grospellier
Ivan Demidov
Alex Kravchenko

Top Story of Main Event Day 1d
The story of Day 1d was the number of people that entered. With Day 1a and Day 1b both attracting under 1,000 entrants, there was real concern this would be a down year for the WSOP Main Event. This turned out not to be the case, with a strong turnout on Day 1c followed by a massive turnout on Day 1d. The massive turnout over the weekend makes this the third largest Main Event ever.

Moving on to Main Event Day 2
The better wording should be moving on to Day 2′s. The field be splintered into two Day 2′s. The players that advanced from Day 1a and Day 1c will play today (Monday). The players that advanced from Day 1b and Day 1d will play on Tuesday. The field will eventually be combined on Day 3 on Wednesday. Look for the money bubble to pop on Wednesday. There will be a total of 693 players that make the money in the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event. First prize is a staggering $8,711,956.

If you are looking for poker websites in which you can qualify for the 2012 World Series of Poker check out Party Poker or Cake Poker.  Please note that Party Poker does not accept United States players, so US residents should choose Cake Poker.

Number of Entrants for 2011 Main Event Day 1c : 2181 (compared to 2313 for Day 1c of the 2010 WSOP Main Event)

Total Players from Day 1c moving on to Day 2:  1471

The number of people that entered Day1c didn’t change a ton from 2010 to 2011, with the decrease in players being less than 10%.  A substantial amount of people are moving on from Day 1c. Those players will play in Day 2a, along with the survivors from Day 1a. Day 2b will be comprised of the survivors from Day 1b and Day 1d.

Top Chip Counts from Day 1c of the World Series of Poker
1 Kevin Song                            163,325
2 Christopher McClung          162,375
3 Giuseppe Zarbo                  150,900
4 Daniel Skolovy                    146,475
5 Henry Pena                          140,800
6 Aleksandr Mozhnyakov    136,225
7 Don Nguyen                       136,000
8 Thomas Pohke                  135,900
9 Eric Appel                          128,300

There were a ton of big names that are moving on from Day 1c. You will find that we have made three separate lists of notable players that are moving on to Day 2 at the 2011 World Series of Poker.  The first list is former WSOP Main Event Champions. The second list is notable poker pros moving on.  The third list is non poker pro celebrities that will be moving on to Day 2. You can also see the full list of players advancing from Day 1c.

Past World Series Main Event Champs Moving on from Day 1c
Bobby Baldwin
Scotty Nguyen
Dan Harrington
Phil Hellmuth
Joe Cada
Jonathan Duhamel

Poker Pros Moving on from WSOP Day 1c
Daniel Negreanu
Daniel “jungleman12″ Cates
Humberto Brenes
Ted Forrest
Eric Baldwin
Tex Barch (made Main Event final table before)
Steve Begleiter
Andy Bloch
Barny Boatman
Steve Brecher
Neil Channing
Lee Childs
Victoria Coren (Team PokerStars Pro)
Mike DiMichele
Peter Feldman
Jimmy Fricke
Rafe Furst
Phil Gordon
David Gray
Gavin Griffin
Christian Harder

Celebrities Advancing from Day 1c
Paul Pierce (Boston Celtics)
Brad Garrett (from Everybody Loves Raymond)
Audley Harrison (professional boxer)

Notable Eliminations from Day 1c of the World Series of Poker
Chris Moneymaker (former Main Event Champ)
Ray Romano (Everybody Loves Raymond)
Shane Warne (cricket player)
Blair Rodman
Robert Mizrachi
Karina Jett
Nenad Medic

Top Story of 2011 WSOP Day 1c – The Truth is the Real Deal
Paul Pierce of the Boston Celtics is advancing to Day 2 of the 2011 World Series of Poker. He isn’t just getting by either as he heads to Day 2 with a stack of over 63,000. This is more than double the starting stack of 30,000, which means that The Truth had a solid day at the tables. Paul Pierce was up to over 100,000 at one point, but his current chip stack is still well above average.

Paul Pierce will be one of the headliners as we head into Day 2 of the 2011 World Series of Poker on Monday. There will surely be many a reporter tailing his every move on Monday. It will certainly be interesting to see if Pierce can continue to build his stack on Monday.