World Series of Poker Main Event Part 1

The Hunt For Glory

 

It's that time of year again. For weeks players have been in Las Vegas, taking their stabs at different tournaments. All with the goal of winning a World Series of Poker Bracelet! The tournaments are all finished with some surprised winners and surprised losers. Some outcomes were expects and most were not. Now it is time for the mother of all tournaments, the WSOP MAIN EVENT!!! This tournament is notorious for massive crowds and a great payday for the winner! Along with the cameras, fame, and money, the belt buckle aka WSOP Main Event Bracelet, is awarded to the winner.

With thanks to PokerGo and ESPN, poker fans can watch every minute of this event LIVE!!! You couldn't make it this year because of work, or family stuff, or because you don't have $10,000 just laying around. With the Main Event being on the two networks, you don't have to miss any of it!

Day 1a brought in a crowd of 795, which has been the highest since 2013 (943). 1b brought in a huge crowd of 2164! If 1c has the crowd that is expected, there will be around 6500 players in this tournament. I want you to think about that number and just imagine winning the whole thing! Outlasting 6499 other people should be on your resume!

With that many people, there are going to be that many stories, that many bad beats, and that many tears. With that being said I want to go ahead and breakdown a hand that took place on Day 1b. This is blowing up the poker world just because of who is in the hand and just the bad luck.

Everyone in the poker world knows who Vanessa Selbst is. 3 WSOP bracelets, 11.8 million in earnings, and a Yale graduate. On Day 1b, Vanessa was sitting at the Feature Table and just didn't have good luck. One hand she had two pair and folded to trips. Then there was the hand with Gaelle Baumann. For those who don't know, Baumann finished 10th in 2012. Check out the video of the hand!

Pick your jaw up off the floor. That was one of the best hands of poker I've seen. Both players played this perfectly and I wouldn't have done anything different!. If you say you would, you are a liar! It is really hard to see a player like Vanessa knocked out on the first day within probably an hour or two into the start of it, but that's poker for you! Oh and it was Vanessa's birthday....What a gift huh? Leave a comment below and tell us what you think of that hand.

Another hand I wanted to talk about is one that was a couple of hands before that one. Pierre Delamare is in a hand against Baumann and Jake Schwartz. Delamare has 9-2 off suit sitting on the button, Baumann, Big Blind, has AJ off suit and Schwartz, UTG+1 has pocket 7s.  Flop comes out 4s Jh Qc. Baumann checks with Schwartz betting 750 with calls from Delamare and Baumann. Turn comes out Kc. Baumann checks, Schwartz checks, Delamare checks. River is 6c. Baumann checks, Schwartz checks and Delamare bets 2500. Baumann and Schwartz fold. 

This guy comes in on the button with a trash hand and takes down the pot against two decent pros. Again, that's poker for you. With that hand, its evident that it's not always the cards you have but how you play them. Hats off to ya Mr. Delamare.

 

These two hands stuck out to me the most from what I saw of Day 1b and felt the need to talk about them.  With plays like these and others that were not mentioned, this is going to an exciting tournament. These two hands are also up on all of our social media accounts so you can either join the conversation on there or start one here. If you are playing in this year's Main Event, please comment and give updates. As always, best of luck to you at the tables and in life!