The WPT Championship is officialy under way as day one ran to a close late last night. The hopeful field of 304 players included the likes of Phil Ivey, Jamie Gold, Phil Hellmuth, John Juanda and many others. With an expected first place payout of $4 Million, this WPT Championship event will pay out more than any poker event before (excluding the World Series).
The end of day one saw some surprising elminations and narrowed the field of players from 304 to around 220. Perhaps the most well played and controversial hand involved both Jamie Gold and John Juanda. This hand was best described by Paul McGuire from Poker News so I will quote his description of it:
Tuan Le had a tough time against Jamie Gold who dominated Le the entire day. During the first hour of the tournament, Gold badgered the table with his usual verbal bombardment, including the former WPT World Champion. Gold promptly put Le on tilt after he displayed a masterful bluff. On a board of 
, Le checked to Gold who moved all in. Le sat and stared at the flop for several minutes. He obviously had a mediocre hand as he went into the tank and Gold stood up. Tournament reporters and photographers all raced over to the table to capture the first big all-in hand of the day. Gold walked back and forth and asked the press if he’d be the first player eliminated if he lost the hand. When he found out that it indeed was the case he turned to Le and said, “I’ve got a huge hand. I don’t know, if it’s taking you this long maybe you have a huge hand, too. If you do have me beat it’ll be an amazing call.”
Le mucked as Gold tabled 6c-3s for a complete bluff. Le looked stunned as Gold mentioned, “He was about a minute away from sending me home. It wasn’t looking good.”
Another surprise coming out of the tournament in the early stages is the success of Anna Wroblewski, who we mentioned earlier this week for winning a $3K event at the Bellagio where she parlayed $300 in over $300,000. Anna finished day one of the WPT Championship with the chip lead sitting at a respectable 211,000+ in chips.
Check back for more updates tommorow from day two.
