The Rio All-Suite Casino Is the WSOP Home for the 3rd Straight Year.
The 2014 World Series of Poker began with the traditional $500 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em event. This year’s event had 876 entrants, down a bit from last year’s 898 players. Each had an affiliation with a casinos.
The total prize pool for the event was $394,200, including $82,835 for the ultimate winner. The winnings are set to be divided among the top 90 finishers. Despite the term “employee” in the event’s name, each year has its share of ringers in the crowd. Most of the Las Vegas casinos have promotional ties with professional poker players, so those gamblers have the right to enter the event.
$500 Casino Employees Event – Day One Highlights
A few other power brokers and personalities slip into the field, too. This year, WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart is playing in the event. Pokernews journalists like Josh Cahlik, Terrence Chan, and Shaun Harris also are playing.
Chad Holloway Makes a Quick Exit
The defending champion, Chad Holloway, made an appearance in hopes of repeating. He busted out before the dinner break, though. He went all-in with an A-8 suited against Sergio Trevino, who had Q-J suited. The flop came up Q-J-8-9-9, giving Trevino more than enough to win the pot. Chad Holloway returns to his job as the Senior Editor at PokerNews.
Other players on the seen were last year’s runner-up, Allan Kwong; former PokerNews hostess, Kristy Arnett; and PokerNews producer, Bernard Lee. The chip leader after Day One was Corey Emery, who collected the money needed to have the biggest stack on one of the last hands of the day.
Day 2 Recap
After two days, only two players remain: Corey Emery and Roland Reparejo. Day Two originally was expected to be the final day of the event. Throughout much of the day, Aaron Henderson was the leader.
The final table included Emery, Reparejo, Kevin Chiem, John Taylor, Marcin Sobczak, Olivier Doremus, Brian Wong, and Charles Nguyen. Kevin Chiem busted out only a few hands into the day. It was another hour before David Luttgeb was put out the tournament by Corey Emery.
One hand later, Marcin Sobczak went all-in with A-8 against 9-9, but was unable to improve on his hand. Brian Wong appeared to have some momentum, but his journey came to an end in a three-way flop against Roland Reparejo and Charles Nguyen.
Taylor, Doremus, and Nguyen
John Taylor got caught trying to steal the blinds with a 4-2 offsuit and was taken out of the tournament by Charles Nguyen’s 7-7. Next, Olivier Doremus went out, after surviving with a short stack most of the day. Doremus had an A-Q offsuit against Corey Emery’s K-K, but was unable to catch the ace he needed to win the hand, leaving Doremus with 4th place.
Charles Nguyen finished in 3rd place, after he went all-in with a pair of 7’s and kings. Corey Emery called the all-in, because he was holding a king that gave him a three of a kind.
Heads-Up Play – Final Two
After it was heads-up play, the night had 8 more hands. The most dramatic of those hands was the final one, in which Roland Reparejo made an all-in call. The board showed 7-8-3-K-6. Emery raised $225,000 while holding K-10. Reparejo moved all-in with a pair of 6’s, which gave him a three of a king. Corey Emery made the call, but Reparejo had the win.
Going into Day Three of the $500 Casino Employees No Limit Holdem Event, Roland Reparejo suddenly has the big stack, with a total of $1,795,000 in chips. Corey Emery is now at $735,000, so his opponent has nearly 2 and 1/2 times the chip amount his opponent does. Heads-up poker tends to have wild swings, so Corey Emery is not out of contention yet.
