2006 WSOP Updates: Negreanu Battles Sexton for TOC Title, Casino Employee Event Down to 18, $1,500 NLH Event #2 Caps Field at 2,200

Some quick hits from the 2006 World Series of Poker:

:: As we speak/type, Daniel Negreanu is battling WPT host Mike Sexton for the Tournament of Champions crown. Negreanu was dominating final table play, but Sexton hung in and has charged back to claim (as of posting) the chip lead. Follow the live action at Card Player. Final table finishers include: 3) Mike Matusow, 4) Chris Reslock, 5) Andrew Black, 6) Darrell Dicken, 7) Chris Ferguson, 8) Thang "Kido" Pham, 9) Daniel Bergsdorf, 10) Gus Hansen.

UPDATE: Mike Sexton has won the WSOP TOC. Seriously. For real.

:: The Casino Employee tournament wrapped Day 1, as only 18 remain from the starting field of 1,232 runners. In case you happen to be the mother/brother/father/sister/wife/reallyreallygoodfriend of someone playing and actually care about the results, some chip leaders include Jay Wright, Bryan Devonshire, and Marsha Waggoner. A guy named Dang Thung was eliminated in 21st. Dang.

:: For many, the WSOP officially kicks off today at 3pm (EST) with Event #2, the $1,500 buy-in no-limit holdem' event.  The field is at 2200 players and 500 alternates.  Allen Cunningham won last year's event against a killer final table that included Scott Fischman and Devilfish Ulliott. We also first brought you pics of the newly named Daisy Duke--April Scott--during our reporting of the event last year.

Check back periodically throughout the day for updates from your Totally Not Official Home of WSOP Coverage^TM, Wicked Chops Poker.

Comments

[snake]

maybe we need to do a story on how April Scott and Keeley Hazell were no shows at Event #2? Seems relevant.

[Kid Dynamite]

What position did April Scott finish in? sixty nine? (ZING!)

[snake]

thanks BJ...we stated it correctly yesterday, that event #2 was starting at noon. I'll check with our staff reporter responsible for this post to see why they'd think a tournament with 2200 players would start at 4 in the afternoon.

Good to see Mike Sexton show up at the TOC and have him square off against Negreanu in a quality heads up battle. Look forward to seeing it on TV as you're right the live updates aren't doing the play justice.

[BJ Nemeth]

Event #2 starts at 12:00 noon, not 4:00 pm. It's the conclusion of Event #1 (Casino Employees) that starts at 4:00 pm.

They're delaying that start because they've already sold out Event #2, and they want to have every single table on the floor filled with players. By the time 4:00 pm rolls around, they should have had time to fill empty seats with alternates, and still managed to clear off two tables for the casino employees to finish their event.

The heads-up battle between Mike Sexton and Daniel Negreanu was incredible. They were battling back and forth in a true showcase of championship-caliber poker. They played each other over five hours before somebody uttered the words "All in." Amazing.

I'm afraid Card Player's live coverage hardly did it any justice.