WSOP: Phil Ivey Survives, Darvin Moon Thrives
July 9th, 2010
Phil Ivey and Darvin Moon both survived Day 1 of the 2010 WSOP Main Event. (photo courtesy of Washington Post)
All four Day 1′s of the WSOP Main Event are in the books, and a few of the biggest names from last year’s November Nine are still in the hunt. Phil Ivey survived a bit of a rocky start, and sits at 27,875 chips, just 2,125 off the starting chip stack of 30,000. Darvin Moon, the everyman hero (or complete donk, as some in the poker community refer to him) and runner-up in last year’s Main Event, had a pretty good Day 1, finishing at 78,400 chips. Last year’s champ, Joe Cada, also managed to more than double his starting chip stack, finishing with 67,150.
Despite ending up close to his starting stack, Ivey’s day was full of ups and downs. A few smallish losses ate away at his stack, including one hand where he had his opponent all-in, while holding Q9h, with a Ax-Jh-10h flop. His opponent turned over Ah-8x for top pair, but giving Ivey lots of outs. The turn and river came Jd-3d, and Phil was knocked down to 24,000 chips. He spent the rest of his Day 1 slowly climbing back towards 30k.
Of course there’s still a whole lot of poker to play before anyone starts making money, or thinking about how that new World Series of Poker bracelet will look. But with lots of top contenders already eliminated from the main event, it’s something of an accomplishment just to survive a first day full of nervous amateurs with a penchant for drastic all-in moves. Some of the big names that suffered an early exit this year include: Huck Seed, Phil Hellmuth, Tom Dwan, Phil Gordon, Joe Hachem and Jeff Madsen.
