If you weren’t able to make it out to the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, ESPN has you covered. The Worldwide Leader in Sports began airing the second largest WSOP tournament ever held on Tuesday night with two one-hour episodes beginning at 8:00pm ET.
The first hour of coverage was devoted to Day 1A and featured Mike “The Mouth” Matusow at the feature table. Matusow sported an “I Am McLovin” shirt and tangled with a group of opponents that included bracelet winner Jason Lester and 2009 World Poker Tour (WPT) Southern Poker Championship winner Allen “AawwNutz” Carter.
At Table 2, Full Tilt Poker pro Erik Seldel picked off a bluff with pocket aces. Then, not believing Taylor Larkin’s story, Seidel 5bet the youngster with just A-6 pre-flop. Larkin shoved all-in with A-K and Seidel wisely released his hand. Other poker players profiled by ESPN cameras on Day 1A included Ted Forrest, Barry Shulman, T.J. Cloutier, Bobby Baldwin, Chris Moneymaker, and Greg Raymer.
Speaking of Raymer, the 2004 WSOP Main Event champ doubled up an opponent with top pair against a set. Then, the PokerStars pro was all-in before the flop with a wired pair of eights, but ran into aces. Raymer signed a fossil over to his executioner and departed the scene.
2010 WSOP Main Event November Nine member Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi scooped a pot and Rob Pisano, who ultimately landed in 23rd, made the nut flush during the Jack Link’s Beef Jerky Wild Card Hand. Meanwhile, Matusow dropped half of his stack after his flush draw failed to hit against Carter. He was then all-in on a flop of 5-J-8 with K-J, but ran into Carter’s pocket eights for a set. It marked just the third elimination for Matusow on Day 1 of the Main Event in 14 years.
The second one-hour episode featured coverage from Day 1B. Seated at Table 2 was Full Tilt pro Annette Obrestad, who made her Las Vegas WSOP debut in 2010. Obrestad won the 2007 WSOP Europe Main Event and is the youngest bracelet winner in the tournament series’ history. Chris Bjorin was her most well-known adversary on Day 1B of the WSOP Main Event.
Gavin Smith took center stage at the feature table and quickly dropped a pot worth 22,500 to Ivan Demidov. Out in the field were several of poker’s top female pros, including former UB.com pro Liv Boeree, Thuy Doan, and Erica Schoenberg. Obrestad, another top-tier female player, got her money in with pocket nines on a board reading 3-5-10. However, an opponent looked her up with pocket jacks. Luckily, Obrestad caught one of her two outs on the turn and no jack came on the river.
Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2009 nominee Dan Harrington won a pot against a player dressed as Batman. Then, fellow WSOP Main Event champ Jamie Gold went busto. Gold has not made it past Day 1 of the $10,000 buy-in poker tournament since his fabled run four years ago.
Elsewhere in the sea of players that turned out for Day 1B, Erick Lindgren moved his chip stack in on the flop with the flush draw and found himself fighting for his tournament life against a player with two pair. Lindgren hit his flush on the turn, but his opponent spiked a full house on the river to send the Full Tilt pro home.
Demidov busted after sending his chips into the middle all-in pre-flop with A-K of spades against K-Q. His opponent turned one queen and rivered another to send the Russian out. Demidov final tabled the 2008 WSOP and WSOP Europe Main Events for a combined haul of over $6.3 million. Following him to the rail was Obrestad, whose A-J could not draw out on Bjorin’s pocket queens after a flop of 2-2-9.
Catch new episodes of the 2010 WSOP on ESPN on Tuesdays at 8:00pm ET.
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