World Poker Tour Championship Begins

The World Poker Tour Championship has arrived and is hosted by the Bellagio in the Fontana Lounge. Although the amount of players this year does not match the amount in 2007, some of the best names in Poker arrived for the event. 210 players felt the rush of the game on the first day at around noon, about the same time the first flop was shown.

The more ya risk, the more ya gain
Most of the first day lacked the common "all in" raise leaving many players in the game by the end of the day. But one game left Daniel Alaei walking with his tail between his legs:

Roy Winston stared at the A spades, Q hearts, 4 hearts, and 7 clubs lying on the table and places a bet of 2,350 in chips. Daniel Alaei replies with 5,000. Winston matches and watches as a 3 hearts falls on the table – making the questioned flush an actual possibility.

Alaei makes the first bet of 6,250 which was followed by an all in by Winston. Alaei had to decide if the cards in his hands were worth risking the rest of the competition. Patiently speculating the possibilities, Alaei finally makes the call and follows Winston’s cards as they hit the table revealing an A and Q clubs. The high two pair eliminated Alaei from the table and the competition. Winning this hand made Winston’s 100,000 total in chips possible.


The Results are IN!
At the end of day the chip leader of 141 remaining players was Billy Baxter with 167,150 in chips followed by Darrell Dicken with 163,675. In third place was Steve Billirakis (156,800) who gained his stack after going all in and defeating Guy Laliberte’s straight with a full house.

The competition will continue on April 21 and end with a Final Table of the top six players on Saturday, April 25th. On Saturday, we will find out who the top player in the sport of gambling is.