Dan Kelly Leads as Approximately 209 Players Advance to Day 2
On Tuesday night, the 2012 World Series of Poker continued with Event #37: $2,500 Eight-Game Mix, which featured alternating rounds of Triple-Draw 2-7, Limit Hold'em, Omaha 8, Razz, Stud, Stud 8, No-Limit Hold’em, and Pot Limit Omaha. While a dozen less players turned up than last year, 477 still took to the felt and created a juicy prize pool of $1,085,175, with $271,312 reserved for first.
The man best positioned to make a run at the top prize is Dan Kelly, who bagged up a robust 56,800. Also in contention are two former champs in John Monnette and Jerrod Ankenman. The former has had a red-hot start to 2012 and is currently leading this year’s Player of the Year race, though he is extremely short on a stack of just 1,525, while the latter bagged an average stack of 17,575.
Things kicked off with a bang after the elimination of Andy Frankenberger in the first level of play. It happened in the no-limit hold’em round when there was an all in and a call on the turn with the board reading 
.
| Andy Frankenberger |   |
| Opponent |   |
Frankenberger was looking for the board to pair in order to stay alive, but the river was the 
. "Unbelievable!" Frankenberger cried as he realized his tournament lasted just under an hour. While he was one of the first eliminations, he certainly wasn’t the last.
Justin Young, Chad Brown, Galen Hall, Nacho Barbero, Ben “milkybarkid” Grundy, Shawn Buchanan, Phil Hellmuth, John Juanda, Michael Mizrachi and Isaac Haxton all joined him on the rail in the middle levels.
By the last two levels of the night, roughly 328 players remained in the field. It was at that time that the 1996 World Series of Poker Main Event champ, Huck Seed, tangled in a hand of pot limit Omaha. With 1,350 in the pot and a flop of 
, Ali Eslami checked from the small blind and the player in the big did the same. That put action on who wasted little time in betting 500. Both his opponents made the call and it was off to the 
turn.
This time Eslami took the initiative and led out for a pot-sized bet, which was 2,850. The big blind proceeded to raise all in for 5,775, which Seed called. The big blind thought the action was over and briefly tabled his hand, which allowed Eslami, who had just 1,500, to catch a peak. He obviously didn't like what he saw as he laid down his hand.
| Seed |    |
| Big Blind |     |
Seed had his opponent drawing to the case four, which didn't come as the 
appeared on the river. With that, Seed scored the elimination and would end the night with 16,175.
Needless to say, Eslami would be eliminated a short time later, but he was followed out the door by the likes of Jonathan Duhamel, David “Doc” Sands, Erik Seidel, Kirk Morrison, Mike Matusow, Men “The Master” Nguyen, Jason Mercier and Doyle Brunson, who actually opted to abandon his chip stack after experiencing chest pains.
TexDolly Doyle Brunson Felt a little flutter I'n my chest at the poker tournament so I got up and left. Can't play cash and tourneys. Too long
June 19 2012
While dozens hit the rail, a few players managed to hold on. Brendon Taylor (45,275), Miguel Benmudez (45,250), Jake Abdalla (43,750), Jeff Madsen (37,074), Ylon Schwartz (34,400), Anthony Nguyen (34,250) and Marco Traniello (33,300) all bagged up big stacks, while a slew of other notables made it to Day 2 like Greg Raymer (27,525), Barry Greenstein (25,000), Daniel Negreanu (19,575), Scotty Nguyen (11,300), Eugene Katchalov (8,225) and Bertrand “ElkY” Grosspellier (6,525).
Who will be the next to add their name to the list of Eight-Game Mix winners?
Former Eight-Game Mix Champions
| Year | Player | Entrants | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | John Monnette | 489 | $278,144 |
| 2010 | Sigurd Eskeland | 453 | $260,497 |
| 2009 | Jerrod Ankenman | 412 | $241,637 |
| 2008* | Anthony Rivera | 192 | $483,688 |
*Featured $10,000 buy-in.
The remaining 209 players will return on Wednesday at 2 PM PST and march through the money on the way to the final table. Join us then as we capture all the action and eliminations from Event #37: $2,500 Eight-Game Mix.