The 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event has drawn 6,865 entrants, far more than estimates were at the start of the event. The top 693 players will have a money finish, but the real question on everyone’s mind doesn’t seem to be the almost nine million dollars at stake for first place, but rather who will nab Player of the Year (the real question on the spectators’ minds, at any rate– the players are certainly gunning for the bracelet).
Day 1D drew not only a large number of entrants, making the 2011 WSOP Main Event the third-largest of all time, but it also drew some well-known names, including Nelly (the rap artist of “Hot in Herre” fame), Jennifer Tilly, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Tom Marchese, John Juanda, Tom “durrr” Dwan, Frank Kassela, Will Reynolds, and Antonio Esfandiari, all of whom hit the rail and won’t be returning for Day 2B, when the chip leaders from Days 1B and 1D go against one another for further elimination.
Mory Little is the chip leader for Day 1D with 179,450 chips, and he is followed by Ben Mintz, with 176,875, Roj Vohra, with 167,450, Anthony Miller (166,000), Dax Mellon (161,325), and Antony Lellouche (155,200). Kevin Song, who was the cheap leader at the end of Day 1C, has now moved from fifth place in chips among the remaining entrants to ninth place, as the top four players today all had a higher total at the end of play. Other notable poker players still in the running after the final first day of the World Series of Poker 2011 Main Event include Lyle Berman (127,575), who is looking for the fourth bracelet of his career, Alexandre Gomes (100,650), who is in pursuit of his second, Todd Brunson (48,625), one-time bracelet winner and son of poker legend Doyle Brunson, Phil Laak (45,700), also pursuing his second bracelet, Huck Seed (42,600), chasing after his fifth WSOP victory, and Vanessa Rousso (65,375) and Noah Boeken (78,675), both looking to change their WSOP records of a series of money finishes by winning the coveted Main Event gold bracelet.
As far as the Player of the Year race is concerned, no real developments have taken place here on the last Day 1 of play. Players get a minimum of 25 points for participation in the event (25 for finishing in the bottom 50%, 50 points for being in the top 21-49%, 75 for being in the top 20, and then between 100 and 500 points for being in the top 9. Since Phil Hellmuth has a 51 point lead over Ben Lamb, who’s following him in the Player of the Year rankings, Lamb could move into first place if Hellmuth is eliminated in the bottom 50% of players and Lamb makes the top 9– poker player or not, you have to admit that those don’t seem like terribly good odds. The Player of the Year race will ultimately depend not only on how the individual players in the running perform in the remaining days of the Main Event, but also on how and when their opponents drop out of the running. Hellmuth seems to have the title in a lock, but it will all come down to whether he can make his short stack (around 11,000 of chips) work for him tomorrow.