Day One of The Reno Hilton's World Poker Challenge Championship Event

2005 WORLD POKER CHALLENGE RENO HILTON
RENO, NV

Event: No-Limit Hold'em Championship Day 1 Chip Count
Buy-in: $5,000
Number of Entries: 361
Total Prize Pool: $1,750,850

The championship event at the Reno Hilton's World Poker Challenge has a buy-in of only $5,000 (compared to $10,000 for most championship events), but there were still only 361 players willing to pay to play. That makes it one of the smaller events on the World Poker Tour, and quite a few professional tournament players skipped this event. (The poker calendar is so packed nowadays, players have to pick-and-choose to create their own "vacations" away from tournaments.)

However, these same factors make it that much better for non-professional players who wish to play in a WPT event. At $5,000, it's like entering for half price, but you still start with $10,000 in chips and face a similar blind structure to other WPT events. As a bonus, the smaller field should make it that much easier to reach the coveted final table that will be broadcast on the Travel Channel.

A few of the most recognizable players who didn't show up for this year's event were Doyle Brunson, Layne Flack, Johnny Chan, Howard Lederer, Annie Duke, Chip Reese, Chip Jett, Evelyn Ng, and Paul Phillips. But there were still plenty of famous players present for all of the railbirds to root for.

Phil Ivey ended the day in great shape with $99,000 in chips. Although he isn't the chip leader, he will be a dangerous presence on day two. Other notable players who survived to day two include Allen Cunningham, Toto Leonidas, John Murphy, Alex Vuong, Joe Awada, Andy Bloch, Dan Harrington, Barry Greenstein, Tony Ma, Harley Hall, "Miami" John Cernuto, Casey Kastle, Hung La, Steve Brecher, David Plastik, and Robert Williamson. Official chip counts from the end of day one will be posted as soon as they are available.

In addition to the WPT cameras, Robert Williamson is also being followed by a separate camera crew from the A&E television show "Airline." Williamson survived to day two, but wasn't left with many chips. Obviously, the producers of "Airline" would love for him to make the final table here, but his performance so far should already be enough to have given them plenty of great footage.

Here's a twist: professional players entering alongside less-experienced relatives -- and losing the family last-longer bet. Jennifer Harman's 24-year-old niece, Aunnie Kress, managed to outlast her famous aunt, surviving well past the dinner break, (she finally busted out when she flopped two pair and went all in against another player's set). After Jennifer Harman busted out, she gave a brief interview to a local news station (she's a Reno native, after all), and then stayed to cheer her niece's performance from behind the rail.

Meanwhile, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi was sent to the rail late in the day, while his wife Aidilay survived to play tomorrow (after earning her entry in a satellite). Michael was a little embarrassed that his wife had outperformed him, and he was also a bit bored, because the roles were reversed as he had to wait for her to finish a tournament. But those emotions were easily overshadowed by his pride in her achievement, and he was talking about what would happen if she won the tournament. (A Card Player cover? We'll see ...) Depending on how well she does, there might be a wave of players' relatives showing up at future events.

About 100 players survived day one, and day two will play down to 27 players. That creates an interesting situation where the "bubble" for money finishers will fall at the very end of tomorrow's action -- so whoever finishes on the bubble in this event will have the added notoriety of being the last person to bust out on day two. Expect extra applause from the remaining players when that happens.

With a total prize pool of $1,725,350, this is the payout structure (paying 27 places):

1) $638,380
2) $327,815
3) $163,908
4) $103,521
5) $77,641
6) $60,387
7) $43,134
8) $34,507
9) $27,606
10-12) $20,704
13-15) $17,254
16-18) $13,803
19-27) $10,352

Day two's action begins on Wednesday, March 30, at 12:00 noon; stay tuned to CardPlayer.com for full coverage, including live updates.
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