07 July 2025
The Main Event of the World Series of Poker 2013 (the tournament that everyone yearns to win) has began yesterday, at the end of the day. Greg Merson, the winner of the 2012 Main Event, was the player appointed to announce the Shuffle Up and Deal; Merson was straight to the point: "I don't want to make a long speech because every year that I come to play, I hate to hear long speeches. Good luck to all of you... and dealers: Shuffle up and deal!"
And so, the kick off of the 2013 Main Event was given. Yesterday, the first of three Days 1, the tournament featured 943 participants. Day 1 had 5 game levels (120 minutes each) and, for a $ 10,000 buy-in, each player received a stack of 30,000 chips. After the five levels of play, there were about 584 players qualified for Day 2.
Traditionally, Day 1A is always the most "quiet" day of the Main Event but, still, some poker stars prefer to play on this day, in order to have a few days to rest if they qualify to Day 2. This was the case of the aforementioned Greg Merson, whom after the "Shuffle Up and Deal" went to play at the tables, Pius Heinz (Main Event winner, 2011), Joe Cada (Main Event winner, 2009), Justin Bonomo, Ivan Demidov, Elio Fox and Brian Rast. Of these names, only Pius Heinz failed to pass to the second day, losing with trip sevens to a straight in the river.
The biggest stacks after the 5 game level are as follows:
- Evan Panesis - 190.975
- Nicholas Crisp - 184.075
- Abdulaziz Almashal - 180.575
- Sergio Castelluccio - 175.825
- Michael Wehner - 170.325
