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The World Series of Poker Southern Comfort 100 Proof National Championship kicked off on Wednesday as 126 players took to the felt at Harrah’s New Orleans for their shot at the first WSOP bracelet to ever be awarded on American soil outside of Las Vegas. After nine one-hour levels of play, just 62 survived with Harrah’s Rincon Casino Champion Valentin Vornicu and his stack of 203,200 leading the way.
Top 10 End-of-Day-1 Chip Counts
Place | Player | Count |
---|---|---|
1 | Valentin Vornicu | 203,200 |
2 | Brock Parker | 133,900 |
3 | Chris Parsons | 133,000 |
4 | Jarod Ludemann | 128,100 |
5 | Andrew Robinson | 117,900 |
6 | Jeff Gross | 117,100 |
7 | Ari Engel | 113,800 |
8 | Blake Barousse | 111,000 |
9 | Jeremy Ausmus | 109,200 |
10 | Joe Tehan | 107,600 |
Vornicu steadily built his stack throughout the day and added to it late at night when he eliminated WSOP bracelet winner Nick Jivkov. It happened in Level 9 (500/1,000/100) when Vornicu led out for 3,500 on a flop of
Vornicu:
Jivkov:
The
Remember, there were only three ways to get a seat into the prestigious tournament — 1. Either win a WSOP Circuit Main Event or become Casino Champion; 2. Earn enough points to finish in the top 60 on the National Leader Board; or 3. Be amongst the top 100 on the WSOP Player of the Year List and buy in for $10,000. Day 1 was comprised of all the Main Event and Casino Champion winners, 62 at-large qualifiers and 26 players who forked over $10,000 to buy in. Registration will remain open up to the start of Day 2, so the last number will certainly change.
The day started off slow and it took three levels before the first elimination to occurred. It happened when Brandon Fish, the Harrah’s Atlantic City Casino Champion, three-bet jammed with the
One of the most feared players in the world, Vanessa Selbst, had her National Championship experience come to a close at the tail end of Level 4 (100/200/25). With 3,000 in the pot and a flop of
Selbst was up out of her seat even before the dealer turned the
In Level 5 (150/300/25), Cord Garcia opened and a short-stacked Matt Glantz moved all in for 4,675. When action reached WSOP bracelet winner Dominik Nitsche in the big blind, he moved all in over the top and drove Garcia out of the pot.
Glantz:
Nitsche:
It was a bad spot for Glantz and according to the PokerNews Odds Calculator, he had just a 17.92% chance of surviving the hand while Nitsche was an 81.54% favorite. The
Many more would join Selbst and Glantz on the rail as the day progressed including five-time ring winner and IP Biloxi champ Kyle Cartwright, at-large qualifier Aaron Massey, Horseshoe Hammond Casino champion Mike Leah, two-time bracelet winner Eric Froehlich, six-time ring winner Alex Masek, and all-time WSOP Circuit ring leader Chris Reslock.
While many fell plenty of notables managed to punch their ticket to Day 2 including at-large qualifier Jarod Ludemann (128,100), “Professional Best Friend” Jeff Gross (117,100), National Points leader Ari Engel (113,800), October Niner Jeremy Ausmus (109,200), Harrah’s Philadelphia Main Event Champion Rex Clinkscales (80,200), WSOP bracelet winner Dominik Nitsche (72,000), 2012 WSOP Main Event runner-up Jessie Sylvia (57,600), three-time ring winner Nancy Birnbaum (37,200) and last year’s National Championship sixth-place finisher David “ODB” Baker (19,900), just to name a few.
Day 2 will kick off at noon CST as the remaining field looks to play down to the final table of eight. Once registration is closed at the start of play, the prize pool and payout information will be released. Be sure to join the PokerNews Live Reporting Team then for that information as well as all the action from the Southern Comfort 100 Proof National Championship!
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