292 players started the day at the final World Poker Tour event of this year. Once again the Bellagio staged their somewhat weird registration. That’s two days worth of late registrations for those that don’t remember. Day one, which is not a multi-part day one, but also doesn’t include all the players that will ultimately comprise the field because of the weird registration went off without a hitch. The chip leader, who we profiled earlier in the year as one to watch out for, is Darryll Fish. Fish cashed seven times at the World Series of Poker and is a highly respected online player.
Darryll got some of his training living in a casino on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where he honed his poker strategy, and has been a rounder on the scene for some time now. For those that have played with the kid, it was clear from the start, he had the potential to be sitting pretty in a major tournament. Knocking out last years winner Chino Rheemhopefully forebodes good things for the 23 year old. The two played a critical hand where they got all 400bbs of chips into the middle on the flop. Chino had flopped a well disguised straight on multi-bet preflop hand. Fish had hit a set of 3s. The 46 in Chino’s hand went well with the board of 357, but a 7 on the turn was a kick in the stomach to Chino and sweet salvation for Fish.
That wasn’t the only spot Fish was able to wiggle out of trouble, as the young kid hit numerous sets on the day and kept chipping up like it was his job. Which makes sense because it is his job. Players started with 60,000 starting stacks and plenty of time to build them up or if bored build them into chip castles. Some of the more familar names who have run as good as Fish include “the Magician” Antonio Esfandiari, Carlos Mortensen and Jon “Pearljammer” Turner all up around 200,000 in chips.
A guy who earned a lot of fame this past summer at the World Series of Poker, for all the wrong reasons, was Billy Kopp. Kopp played the infamous hand against Darvin Moon were he flopped a baby flush. Moon flopped a higher flush but neither had the nuts. The board paired on the turn yet Kopp put his chips to the center. He ran a little better this go round. Cornered by getting it all in with pocket jacks, he faced pocket kings. Riding shotgun in the hand also with his tournament life on the line was Daniel Negreanu. Kopp’s jacks found a third jack, and Kopp scooped a huge pot. Negreanu headed for the exits wondering where did it all go wrong.
Registration for the main event will not complete until 5pm on the second day. That means the winner may not have even the tournament yet. With a $15,000 buy-in there is heavy debate about optimal start time. Do you sit down and try to accumulate chips early or do you buy-in after a lot of the field has already busted.
The field already has its share of luminaries though it’s rumored two of the Phils (Ivey and Hellmuth–the two biggest Phis) are sitting it out. Those that did make day one include Phil Laak, his girlfriend Jennifer Tilly, Jonathan Little, Soheil Shamseddin, Antoine Saout, Cornel Andrew Cimpan, Phil Laak, and Doyle Brunson.
Cimpan like Yveginy Timoshenko started the day with an outside shot of being able to win WPT POY. Though to catch Eric “Basebaldy” Baldwin they’d almost have to win the tournament outright.
Chip Count Leaderboard
1. Darryll Fish – 236,625
2. Jon “Pearljammer” Turner – 227,325
3. David Woo – 205,000
4. Billy Kopp – 201,325
5. Carlos Mortensen – 194,525
6. Antonio Esfandiari – 184,225
7. Cory Carroll – 184,025
8. Justin Tazelaar – 169,200
9. Nashaat Antonious – 164,100
10. David Peat – 160,000