The $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout tournament, which started at 12:30 pm today, is one of the more interesting events at the World Series. Basically, the future gold bracelet winner will have to win a bunch of sit n gos in a row, a format that requires proficiency at full-table, short-handed, and heads-up play, so it’s not surprising that three hours into the day most of the top pros, with a few notable exceptions, are still alive.
Despite a half an hour delay to accommodate a slew of last-minute entries which pushed the field from 800 to 900, the tournament got off to an excellent start, especially when compared to last year when the event was played with only six players sitting at each table. Even with nine players at a table, the field was still large enough to require the use of the Poker Tent, where, you might recall, “Eskimo” Clark collapsed yesterday afternoon. Amongst the big names forced to schlep themselves out to the Tent were Erick Lindgren and Eric Froelich (“E-Dog” and “E-Fro”!).
What I find most interesting about this tournament is how different the play can vary from table to table. At some of the faster and looser tables a winner of Round 1 was crowned within an hour or two while at the slower tables a champ might not emerge until this evening. At one of the faster tables to get down to two players Erick Seidel is battling Mitch Shock heads-up. At the outset Seidel only had 10k while Shock had 20k, but Seidel knows a little something about heads-up play. Relying on his experience and guile as well as a hand where he got quad jacks, Seidel grabbed the lead 17k-13k, which at last glance he had stretched to 19k-11k. “You got the best of me on this heads-up,” Shock said at one point. “I really want to suck out on you so if I say I beat Erick Seidel I can then explain that I was way behind in the hand.”
As important as who is left is who is gone. Fresh from winning his record-breaking 11th gold bracelet, Phil Hellmuth was all smiles at his table until he pushed a little too hard with K-7 and got called by a player with A-10 and another holding pocket sevens. Hellmuth complained about his misfortune to Daniel Negreanu: “I can’t believe it. I can beat 3,000 players, but I can’t beat those nine?” Negreanu didn’t respond. He was too busy steamrolling his table. With three players left he had amassed most of the chips on the table.
