2008 WSOP, Day 2: Time Flies

Looks as though 70 players survived through Day 1 of Event No. 1, the World Championship Pot-Limit Hold’em event ($10,000 buy-in). A total of 352 ended up entering the event, it appears, with several recognizable figures still alive. Among those still with chips are Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Andy Bloch, Humberto Brenes, Lyle Berman, Rolf Stotboom, Phil Laak, David Benyamine, Patrik Antonius, Jennifer Harman, Bill Chen, Mike Sexton, Kathy Liebert, and Eli Elezra who currently leads the event with 302,000. Thirty-six spots will pay.

Probably the weirdest item reported over at PokerNews concerned the tourney clocks running too fast. There are huge displays positioned throughout the playing area. Pretty much no matter where you sit you can see them, and thus instantly know how much time is left in a given level, what the blinds are, and how many players remain.

According to PN live blogger Don Peters, “A spectator on the rail was timing the event levels with his stopwatch and found that the tournament clock was running fast. Word spread to the players and the players began complaining to the tournament directors about losing playing time.” Apparently a “computer glitch” was causing the clocks to run too quickly. I liked Mean Gene’s Einstein-referencing follow-up post on the matter, titled “The Theory of Special Relativity at Work?” Not sure if they managed to fix that problem or not, but I imagine I’ll find out today.

Gene, Don, and Change100 did a great job with the reporting yesterday. They will be back at today when the event cranks up again around 2 p.m. Vegas time. Meanwhile, Event No. 2, the first of the several $1,500 No-Limit Hold ‘em events, is slated to begin at noon. We’re expecting a huge turnout for this one. Indeed, organizers have scheduled two “Day Ones” for Event No. 2 in order to accommodate what some expect to be in excess of 4,000 entrants. Unlike yesterday, when only a quarter or so of the Amazon Room was filled with WSOP players, I would imagine most if not all of the space will be occupied by players when I head over there this afternoon. PokerNews has assigned extra bloggers to this one to try and cover as much of the action as possible.

Not sure what exactly my plan is today. After a tedious hour-long wait yesterday at a nearby urgent care facility, I did manage to get those stitches out. The fellow who did the job was helped by a nurse, and I actually heard him say to her “I’ve never done this before” during the procedure. Not really the words you want to hear in that situation. But all ended well, as far as I know.

I’m thinking I may well try today to do a little “live blogging” -- or a reasonable facsimile, anyway -- here on Hard-Boiled Poker. As I mentioned, my first day for PokerNews doesn’t officially come around until Monday, so I might head to the Rio with the laptop today, see what I can see, and post a few items during the day over here.

So do keep checking PokerNews for all the latest, but you might come around here, too, for a bit of color starting later in the afternoon.