Friday, June 26, 2009

WSOP: Mark Tenner Grabs Lead As Day 2 Ends

Day 2 of the USD 2,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better (Event 46) ended with Mark Tenner in the lead. Play began Monday with 425 players but only 196 returned for play on Tuesday. When the chips were bagged at the end of the night only 23 remained.

Tenner ended the night with 285,000 in chips and made his eighth World Series of Poker career cash. Tenner will be aiming to take down his first WSOP bracelet.

The underdog story of the night went to Frenchman Patrice Boudet who was playing in his first Omaha 8 tournament. Boudet began Day 2 with the shortest chip stack, a mere 2,500. After many ups and downs throughout the day he was sitting on one of the biggest stack in play at 205,000.

Something was amiss in the Amazon Room as players seemed to be out of sorts, confused and argumentative throughout the tournament.

At table 77 a shouting match ensued when Fabio Coppola insisted he should have won the low half of the pot that was awarded to John Juanda. With four cards on the board Juanda had two pairs with a bad low, but was awarded the pot when Coppola mucked his cards. Coppola insisted he had Ace-deuce, which would have given him the low and that half the pot was his.

The dealer, Juanda and most of the table argued that it did not matter what Coppola may have had in his hands, when he did not show his cards his hand was dead. Coppola refused to concede and the floor was called. “It’s real simple,” the floorman told Coppola. “If you don’t table your cards, you don’t have a live hand. You must table your cards. The whole pot goes to John.”

When moved to table 80 Coppola accused the dealer of cold-decking him. “It’s obvious you’re setting me up. I haven’t won a hand since you sat down,” he yelled. The dealer insisted he was not cold-decking or cheating in any other way but it was not enough. Coppola soon started mucking every hand dealt to him, and did not let up until a new dealer took a seat at the table.

Later at table 72 the issue of tabling hands came up again. A player claimed he was entitled to half the pot, but the dealer insisted the hand was dead because the player did not table the cards.

The floor was again called and this time took to reviewing the tapes to determine if the player had tabled the cards. In the end the floor ruled the cards had not been tabled and the hand was dead. Like Coppola, the player was not awarded half the pot he claimed to have won.

More drama was found at table 86 when Todd Brunson and an opponent were in a pot on a board reading 9 6 5 Q K . Brunson turned over Q Q [10d] 9 and the opponent proclaimed “I have a straight” as he flipped over A 2 [10s] 7 . The dealer double checked the hand before telling the player “You have nothing.” The player was sure he had Brunson beat and insisted “I have a straight. Five, six, seven, nine. Oh, wait.” The dealer then slid the chips to Brunson.

The remaining 23 players will return tomorrow at 1 p.m. to play down to a final table. The winner will take home an amount just shy of USD 230,000 and a WSOP bracelet.

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