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We've been patiently waiting all day for Phil Hellmuth to arrive at the Bike. We know he's in L.A., we know he was playing cash games at the Commerce last night and we know he intends to play the tournament. But we don't when he'll show up.
We suspect he'll arrive in his usual Hellmuthian fashion - considerably late and impossible to ignore.
As soon as he arrives we'll let you know.
2011 WSOP Bracelet winner Owais Ahmed is giving this tournament one more shot after busting out earlier today, and so far, he is making the most of his second chance. Ahmed was already up to 28k when we came in on this hand. Ahmed had made an opening raise, and was three bet by the cutoff to 825. The small blind called, and action folded Ahmed, who decided to raise it up to 2,500. The cutoff tanked for over a minute before reluctantly giving his hand up, while the small blind thought for a few moments before calling.
The flop came 
, and the small blind checked to Ahmed, who took little time before betting out 2,500. The small blind folded quickly, and Ahmed boosted his stack up to 33,000.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
33,000
4,000
|
4,000 |
|
||
We didn't catch the action but the uproar at the table caught our attention. By the time we got to the table the dealer had mucked the board and hole cards. But what we can tell you is that Joey Risi turned the nut straight, one opponent had the second nut straight and the third opponent had the third nut straight.
He tripled up 60,000 and is the early tournament leader for the second flight.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
60,000 |
Level: 2
Blinds: 50/100
Ante: 0
As we expected, several big names have re-brought in for tonight's play, and they are joined by a few others who are buying in for the first time.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
20,000
20,000
|
20,000 |
|
20,000
20,000
|
20,000 |
|
||
|
|
20,000
20,000
|
20,000 |
|
20,000
20,000
|
20,000 |
|
|
||
|
|
20,000
20,000
|
20,000 |
|
|
||
|
20,000 | |
|
20,000 | |
|
||
|
20,000
20,000
|
20,000 |
Cards are in the air for the second Day 1 flight.
Level: 1
Blinds: 25/50
Ante: 0
WSOP TD Jack Effel is making announcements concerning the National Championship, the 2012 WSOP schedule and today's schedule. Cards will be in the air soon.
Day 1a of the World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event at the Bicycle Casino has come to a close and almost half the starting field has been eliminated. At the end of play 150 players remain of the 299 that entered and Brandon Crawford is the chipleader with 115,000.
It was not an easy day for many of the notable players that began the day. Bryan Devonshire was eliminated on the first hand he played when he made a king-high straight and his opponent made Broadway. Joining Devonshire on the rail are Allen Cunningham, Jerry Yang, Jeff Madsen, Tuan Le, Aaron Massey, Owais Ahmed, Kelly Kim, Tuan Le and Ray Henson. We expect to see most of those players during the evening flight.
It wasn't all bad news for notables; moving on to Day 2 are "Miami" John Cernuto (21,000), David "ODB" Baker (28,000), Nick Rampone (17,000), Thor Hansen (31,000) and Steve Brecher (37,000).
Day 1b is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. and we'll continue to cover all the action. Day 2 will have cards in the air at 12 p.m. PST and be sure to follow all the WSOPC action live on Pokernews.com
