PokerStars ambassador Alejandro Lococo, aka "Papo MC," made one of the greatest bluffs you'll ever see in the World Series of Poker Main Event Monday night.
Lococo, an Argentinian freestyle rapper with 2.8 million Instagram followers, is attempting to return to the Main Event final table after finishing in seventh place for $1,225,000 last year.
Every other table in the field had already bagged their chips and gone home for the night, but action was still happening over on table 94.
There was already over 150,000 in the pot and a board reading . The cutoff had already moved all in and gotten called by the Vincent Lam in late position, and from the big blind. The big blind also jammed, for 427,000 more than the cutoff's, and the action was now on Lam to make the call.
Lam tanked for a few minutes, before telling his opponent "You're pretty good at Hollywooding," and pushing all his chips into the middle, with both of his opponents covered narrowly.
Cutoff:
Big Blind:
Vincent Lam:
Lam had the best of it with his pair of eights. The river was a safe one for him, and he scooped the massive 1,000,000 chip pot on the last hand of the night, giving him a sizeable chip lead entering Day 2.
Day 1 of Event #77: $1,500 Mixed No-Limit Hold'em/Pot Limit Omaha at the 2022 World Series of Poker has come to an end. Connor Drinan and Vincent Lam are the only players to reach the million-mark in chips; they bagged an impressive 1,200,000 and 1,070,000, respectively.
The day kicked off with around 250 players taking their seats at the start of play but that number quickly escalated. There will be 151 of the 1,234 total entries returning at 1 p.m Tuesday, July 12th, all guaranteed at least $2,400 for their efforts while the eventual winner of the event will take home the prestigious WSOP gold bracelet and $277,949.
Drinan has a pair of WSOP bracelets to his name, one from an online event at GGPoker in 2020 and another in an Omaha Hi-Lo event in Las Vegas in 2021. Now he has the chance to add a third piece of poker gold in this No-Limit Hold'em/Pot-Limit Omaha mixed event,
Lam played aggressively to gain his chips in the last few levels of the night and surged to the top counts on the very last hand of the night when he called in a three-way all in for a pot over a million and won during the very last seconds of the day, while most of the other players had already bagged their stacks.
Carter Newhof, who had just cashed in the World Series of Poker Main Event for $19,000, managed to end the day with 782,000 chips. Leonard "LJ" Sande also bagged a decent stack of 624,000 chips after spinning things up near the end of the night.
The bubble burst at the very beginning of hand-for-hand play with 188 players left, when four simultaneous eliminations left the surviving 186 players in the money. Those four players split the first two money prizes. One of them was Justin Fawcett who lost two big hands in a row before busting at the hands of Vincent Dale.
Other players that navigated their way through the Day 1 field and advanced to Day 2 included Daniel Negreanu (325,000), two-time bracelet winners Anson Tsang (209,000) and Barny Boatman (86,000), Vangelis Kaimakamis (620,000), Dan Shak (189,000), Mike Watson (144,000), Ryan Laplante (127,000) and Adam Hendrix with a short stack of 73,000.
Not all of the well-known players were able to bag at the end of Day 1 as many were knocked out during proceedings. These included WSOP Main Event champions Hossein Ensan and Joe Cada, Scott Seiver, Jeff Madsen, four-time bracelet winner Anthony Zinno, Rainer KempeMarcel Luske and three-time bracelet winner Davidi Kitai.
Day 2 is set for 1 p.m. Tuesday, July 12th, with the PokerNews Live Reporting Team providing coverage throughout the tournament.