With super-deep-stacks, top-tier poker players and amateurs, and an $18 million first-place prize we were all expecting big things from the $1,000,000 buy-in Big One for One Drop tournament that kicked off at 1:11 PM on Sunday, but few could have predicted just how exciting, mesmerizing, and wild a day it would be. Day 1 had everything from an elimination mere hours into the tournament (with 11 eliminations in total on Day 1), to folded quads, to a flat-call with AQ on an A-Q-Q-8-6 board, to Phil Hellmuth going on tilt early to one of the chip-leaders by the end of the day.

Justin Smith eliminated in first two hours of play

Justin “Boosted J” Smith was the first player to hit the rail in the tournament when he made a bit of a hero call with a straight on a board with three Spades, unfortunately for Justin his opponent, French businessman Frederique Banjout had the nut flush. Smith was left with just 30,000 chips and was eliminated soon thereafter by Brian Rast.

Quad 8’s folded FACE-UP!

On a board of Js-8c-7s-8s-Ks, Michail Smirnov folded Pocket 8’s face-up to the all-in raise of John Morgan, prompting Phil Galfond to Tweet the following: Phil Galfond ?@PhilGalfond “Just saw the craziest hand I’ve ever seen. Guy folded 88 face-up on Js87s8sKs.”

In an interview with Cardplayer Magazine, Smirnov explained his thinking in the hand, saying:

“For me, it was a very easy fold. If he had two kings before the flop he would have re-raised Dwan, because he’s been active and raising a lot. So, two kings was impossible. Two jacks, in theory, was possible.” Adding, “He was like all-in, no problem. Before he had been playing very carefully and tight.” This thinking made Smirnov believe that the only likely holding in Morgan’s hand was 9sTs, with Pocket Jacks being a possibility as well.

Phil Hellmuth comes back from the dead with AA vs. KK

For most of the early stages of the tournament Phil Hellmuth’s chips lay in a scattered pile, the classic sign that the “Poker Brat” was on tilt. However, after a gutshot straight draw got there against Daniel Negreanu, Hellmuth started stacking his chips in a more classic fashion, so when a hand came up against Paul Phua, Hellmuth had regained his composure and made an unorthodox but effective play against the businessman.

After an early position raise by Phua and two calls Hellmuth massively overbet the pot, raising the 35k raise to 650k. Phua would move all-in (with Pocket Kings), the other players got out of the way, and Hellmuth snap-called with Pocket Aces. My guess is that Phil had a read on Phua signaling he had a really strong hand and felt the amateur would play a big pot; otherwise the raise to 650k makes little sense.

Phil Hellmuth just calls with AQ

On a board of A-Q-Q-8-6 Phil Hellmuth let Paul Phua off the hook when he simply called Phua’s river bet holding A/Q. Hellmuth must have feared Phua had Pocket Aces, a rare misread for the Poker Brat, although if he did have a “strong” tell on Phua his read may have been spot on, considering the Malaysian businessman rivered a full-house of his own, holding Pocket 6’s.

Chip Counts heading into Day 2

Even though the pros made up the bulk of the eliminations on Day 1 –with Justin Smith, Andrew Robl, Jens Kyllonen, Jonathan Duhamel, Erik Seidel, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Nick Schulman, Eugene Katchalov, and Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi all hitting the rail on Day 1, compared to just Paul Phua and Giovanni Guarascio for the amateur players—the pros also top the leader-board with only Guy Laliberte and Frederique Banjout making the Top 10.

1. Brian Rast — 10,710,000

2. Phil Hellmuth — 8,395,000

3. Frederic Banjout — 7,070,000

4. Antonio Esfandiari — 6,880,000

5. Gus Hansen — 6,800,000

6. Sam Trickett — 6,700,000

7. Guy Laliberté — 6,550,000

8. Ben Lamb — 5,770,000

9. Mike Sexton — 5,740,000

10. Tom Dwan — 4,810,000

11. Brandon Steven — 4,770,000

12. Mikhail Smirnov — 4,680,000

13. Bobby Baldwin — 4,225,000

14. Jason Mercier — 4,210,000

15. Robert Bright — 3,880,000

16. David Einhorn — 3,795,000

17. Phil Ruffin — 3,750,000

18. Tom Marchese — 3,740,000

19. Philipp Gruissem — 3,600,000

20. Richard Yong — 3,430,000

21. Rick Salomon — 3,285,000

22. Paul Newey — 3,225,000

23. Dan Shak — 3,190,000

24. Noah Schwartz — 3,120,000

25. Roland De Wolfe — 2,960,000

26. Phil Ivey — 2,840,000

27. Cary Katz — 2,785,000

28. Talal Shakerchi — 2,760,000

29. Haralabos Voulgaris — 2,250,000

30. John Morgan — 2,000,000

31. Ilya Bulychev — 1,880,000

32. Vivek Rajkumar — 1,270,000

33. Tobias Reinkemeier — 1,220,000

34. Bill Perkins — 885,000

35. Chamath Palihapitiya — 635,000

36. Daniel Negreanu — 470,000

37. Phil Galfond — 445,000

Tags: 8c, Amateurs, Aq, Businessman, Eliminations, J Smith, John Morgan, Justin Smith, Kk, Mesmerizing, Opponent, Phil Galfond, phil hellmuth, poker players, Quads, Rast, Spades, stacks, Tilt, Two Kings

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