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World Poker Challenge - Day 1 Recap
BJ Nemeth
The tournament kicked off with a viewing party the night before Day 1, as the World Poker Tour was airing for the first time on a new network -- GSN, formerly known as the Game Show Network. It was the first episode of Season VI, which featured Jonathan Little and Phil Ivey -- two players that would play a big part throughout the season.
Jonathan Little was on hand to watch himself win the event on TV, and a second-place finish later in the season puts him on top of the WPT Player of the Year leaderboard. Ivey would finish fifth on TV, but his recent victory at the WPT L.A. Poker Classic makes him the most serious threat to Little's lead.
But while the party celebrated new beginnings (new season, new network), the tournament that started on Tuesday was about bringing things to a close. This is the third-to-last tournament of the season, leaving little time for Ivey (or anyone else) to catch Little in the POY race. It's also the last time the World Poker Tour will be stopping in Reno for the foreseeable future -- the Season VII schedule was tightened up, reducing travel for the players and the crew, and there will be no WPT tournament in Reno next year.
Regardless of future plans, there were large crowds on this day to watch their favorite professional players, and they were treated to some fan-friendly tables as a late surge in registrations put a lot of big-name pros together at the same tables. The strongest lineup was at Table #25, where eight out of nine seats were filled with top players: Lee Watkinson, John Phan, Mike Matusow, Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler, Greg "FBT" Mueller, Tony Le, Vanessa Rousso, and last year's Reno champion (and Season V Player of the Year) J.C. Tran.
While six of those players survived until the table broke in Level 4, none of those players would survive a long Day 1 that lasted more than 13 hours, dwindling the starting field of 261 players down to 75. A late surge left a familiar face atop the leaderboard -- Phil Ivey, who has already had end-of-day chip leads in several other tournaments this season.
With the end-of-day average around 52,000 in chips, there were seven players with more than 100,000:
1. Phil Ivey - 179,900
2. Eli Elezra - 173,800
3. Alan Epstein - 135,200
4. Jordan Rich - 131,300
5. Steve Conigliaro - 130,200
6. Tim West - 121,000
7. Hasan Habib - 110,300
Ivey has put himself in a strong position to reach the money, which is the top 27 players. And history shows that when Ivey makes the money in a WPT tournament, he makes the final table -- he's 8-for-8. Is it possible he could make it 9-for-9 and put himself in position to catch Jonathan Little in the WPT Player of the Year race?
There's only one way to find out -- return to WorldPokerTour.com tomorrow (Wednesday) at 12:00 noon PT, as we provide complete live coverage, with chip counts, photos, and video interviews with Kimberly Lansing.
