While strolling through the RIO today getting a feel for the WSOP, taking in the sounds and trying to wrap my brain around the endless sea of poker players in front of me with no horizon in sight – I stumbled upon the area reserved for Day 4 action of the $50K Poker Players Championship.
When I arrived, there were four empty tables with bags of chips. I had missed the updates the night before, so, decided to wait around to see if any of the elite poker players showed up. Ha! Not only did the elite poker players show up, but, each table was loaded with incredible talent.
| 1 | Matt Glantz | 259,000 |
| 2 | Phil Galfond | 47,000 |
| 3 | Barry Greenstein | 440,000 |
| 4 | David Baker | 277,000 |
| 5 | –empty– | — |
| 6 | Phil Hellmuth | 1,174,000 |
| 7 | Michael Binger | 274,000 |
| 8 | Josh Arieh | 1,819,000 |
The table in front of me was so packed with power…I chuckled to myself over the serendipity of me ending up at that spot at that time. A handout told me that these (table to the right) were the players who were going to be playing four feet in front of me. I would actually be able to hear the table banter.
And let the play begin!
Right away there was some action. Phil Galfond, short stacked with 47K, went All In from the Big Blind on the first hand and was busted by chip leader Josh Arieh.
I stood on the rail for the whole first level. No incredible hands, but there were some of the “old” Phil antics with him reacting upon being three-bet and four-bet and being shown bluffs. Looked to me like every other player at the table was doing his best to get Phil on tilt. He shook his hands, whined, stood up a couple of times. Thankfully, there were no ugly *Northern European* smackdowns as in the past. All in all, Phil was well behaved.
Of note is the fact that Phil’s wife Katherine is sitting just off the table to the left directly in across from him.
Notable players at other tables: Gus Hansen, Jeff Lisandro, David Oppenheim, Robert Mizrachi, Minh Ly, Shaun Deeb, Brain Rast, Scott Sevier.