Bodog Beat

Poker pro Bill Edler is near the top of the leaderboard after Day 1A of the WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals. (Bodog Beat Image)

After an event that solely challenged the continent of North America at the WPT North American Poker Championships, the WPT turned its eyes to worldwide competition with the Foxwoods World Poker Finals, which as a PokerListings.com reporter pointed out isn't really the finals to anything.

Anyway, all highfalutin (looked it up, it's a word in the Merriam-Webster dictionary) names aside, Day 1A drew 237 players, which means that if the event wants to top last year's 609 they will need a turnout of almost 400 tomorrow for Day 1B. Even with that high of a turnout needed, tournament officials are still predicting a field near the 600 mark.

Mixed in among those attendees for yesterday's activities were a number of poker pros Erik Seidel, Bill Edler, Vanessa Rousso, Hoyt Corkins, Tom Schneider, Tuan Le, "Miami" John Cernuto, Amnon Filippi and JC Tran, who found himself embroiled in some controversy toward the end of the day.

Upon getting all his chips in the middle with an unnamed player, Tran turned up trip nines and his opponent tossed his cards into the muck and made to leave. However, because it was an all-in hand, the dealer retrieved the cards and turned them up and the turn and river cards gave the identity-protected individual the hand. Tran called over the floor, who ruled in favor of his opponent because the cards had never actually touched the muck and since it was an all-in hand, both sets of cards should have been turned up anyway. Needless to say, Tran was mildly perturbed by this turn of events as it halved his stack, but he did rally back to build up his chip count and survive the day.

On the other hand, there were some players who would be unable to rally from their hits. Our superhero, Jonathan "FieryJustice" Little, who just finished second at the WPT NAPC, encountered his kryptonite in the pocket rockets of an unknown player and went back to Smallville a little earlier than anticipated. Fellow NAPC final tablist Barry Greenstein also hit the rail today along with his son, Joe Sebok.

Other notables going busto early in the competition included Mimi Tran, Chad "my girlfriend went to Duke" Brown and David "Dragon" Pham. In the end, 151 players survived the day with Michael Farris as the current chip leader followed closely by Edler, online poker pros Kevin "BelOwAboVe" Saul and Eric "Rizen" Lynch and Tuan Le.

Play resumes at noon EST and live updates are available at CardPlayer.com and PokerListings.com.