4th Annual Five-Star WPC - Day 1A
Phil Hellmuth in the Spotlight
The WPT championship at the Bellagio started today, a tournament with just over 600 entrants and a $25,000 entry fee. The tournament directors had to divide the field into two groups, and the first group of 296 players were about to try their luck at day one.
4th Annual Five-Star World Poker Classic
No-Limit Hold'em Championship
Day 6 - Monday April 24th, 2006
| Day 1A | Day 1B | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 |
The WPT championship at the Bellagio started today, a tournament with just over 600 entrants and a $25,000 entry fee. The tournament directors had to divide the field into two groups, and the first group of 296 players were about to try their luck at day one.
The players started with $50,000 in tournament chips and because of the low blinds in the beginning of the tournament the game started off pretty slow. Some of the players we have spotted here at day one of the WPT championship are: Dan Harrington, TJ Cloutier, Phil Ivey, Barry Greenstein, JC Tran, Josh Arideh, Hoyt Corkins, Juha Helppi, John Juanda, Sam Farha and Erick Lindgren.
As usual Phil Hellmuth missed the beginning of the tournament. He came in after the two first blind levels had passed and sat down at a table with some strong competitors. This might have been the toughest table at day one with players like Gus Hansen, Barry Schulman and Juha Helppi. But Phil did not need much time before he started pushing his chips around. After only 30 minutes of play he eliminated Gus Hansen and built his stack up to $70,000.
The most memorable hand from day one included Barry Greenstein and a monster hand. The board showed Ah-Ac-9h-Qs-Jd. Greenstein checked the river and his opponent bet $6000. Greenstein raised it up to $26.000 and got a call with pocket jacks and a full house. Not enough though, Barry flips over two aces and won the pot with quads.
The play ended at 9 PM and we are now waiting for the second part of the field to start of their first day.
Among the eliminated: Robert Williamson, Joe Sebok, Gavin Smith, David "The Dragon" Pham and Gus Hansen.
Arthur Crowson
Mason Raymond's Top 3
1. Barry Greenstein's four aces: You should have seen the look on the guy's face when Barry turned over his pocket Aces (he had flopped quads). I actually don't know how to describe it, but it certainly wasn't pretty. The guy had made a boat, Jacks full of Aces, on the river, and I guess he was pretty sure that he was going to win the pot. But "The Robin Hood of Poker" wasn't giving away anything this time…
2. Phil Hellmuth arriving late - "The Bad Boy of Poker" seemed less cranky than usual today. He even admitted that he was lucky to survive against the set of 2´s. And he gave the other guy credit for playing well. Perhaps a good night's sleep did the trick. On the other hand he is much more entertaining when he is wining and complaining about everyone and everything.
3. Chip Jett - This guy really lived up to his name today. I didn't see much of him, but from what I heard he played solid poker throughout the day and well deserves to be in the lead. I also talked to him briefly and he seems to be a really nice guy.
Interview with chip leader Chip Jett
Congratulations to the chip lead
- Thanks. It feels good to be in the lead, but I still have a long way to go.
What do you think about your performance today?
- I played some good poker, and didn't make any big mistakes.
What have you done before this?
- I won the Tropicana Poker Championship Series and the California State Poker Championship in 2003, and I have finished in the money in the WSOP and WPT a couple of times.
Ok, Chip. Thanks and good luck.
- Thank you very much.
