Does the back of this head look familiar to anyone?

The first elimination of the Spades bracket came just five minutes in and, from there, the players dropped like flies as we plowed through the round of play.   Like the rounds that preceded it, the room was exceptionally quiet, especially after the boisterous Daniel Negreanu made an early exit from his match.  Seems as though the players realize the prestige associated with this event and are focused on winning their matches moreso than winning over the crowd.

Here are some quick recaps of all the Spade bracket Round 1 matches, with the Round Two pairings listed below as well:

Phil Ivey def. Gavin Smith
Fans of Poker After Dark will recall that this match-up here at Caesars was not the first time Gavin Smith and Phil Ivey have faced off in a heads-up battle. The two previously got heads-up in an episode of Poker After Dark and it was Smith prevailed over Ivey. This time Ivey got the best of the Smith, whittling him down to 8,000 chips then getting it all-in holding AJ to Smith’s AT. The J63 connected with both players and Smith jokingly offered to run it twice. Ivey declined, the turn and river whiffed Smith and Ivey advanced to the next round.

Scotty Nguyen def. Richard Edwards
Scotty Nguyen is the latest pro to crush the hopes and dreams of an online qualifier. He had his opponent Richard Edwards on the ropes and the qualifier shoved all-in holding A-3. Nguyen called just a small amount more holding 6-7 and caught a lucky river on an 843T6 board to advance to play Ivey in Round Two.

Joe Hachem def. Shawn Rice
Shawn Rice may have been a Caesars qualifier, but he is a known pro in his own right and has been featured in past World Series of Poker (WSOP) coverage. He put up quite the fight against Hachem despite getting short early on and managed to double up his short stack to extend his run at the table. Rice’s second attempt to double up was less successful. He got it all-in holding A5 to Hachem’s TT and was drawing pretty slim after the T82 flop gave Hachem top set. The 8 on the turn left Rice drawing dead and Hachem advanced.

Gabe Kaplan def. Johnny Chan
It was a battle of two old schoolers in this match, which was moved to the feature table after the Negreanu v. Mercier bout ended so abruptly. The “High Stakes Poker” announcer prevailed over the high stakes poker pro in the end when Kaplan’s Q9 outflopped Chan’s K2 on an A9734 board.

Jason Mercier def. Daniel Negreanu
Daniel Negreanu and Jason Mercier must have gotten word that the feature tables were finishing first and decided they wanted to show some people up. Their match was over in record time after the two got it all-in on a J-3-3-2 board with Mercier holding pocket queens to Daniel’s pocket fives. The river brought a nine and Mercier’s superior hand propelled him to a Round 2 match. Negreanu explained his thought process in the hand after the match was over. “It’s hard to get a pair and I got one,” he told NBC’s Leanne Tweeden.

Pieter de Korver def. Mike Sexton
Reigning European Poker Tour (EPT) Monte Carlo Champion Pieter de Korver may not be familiar to American television audiences just yet, but if he can keep defeating big names in the game like Mike Sexton, that will all change shortly. De Korver got it all-in with the superior AK to Sexton’s AT and had the World Poker Tour (WPT) host drawing dead by the turn on a KK75 board. That was the end of the match for Sexton and de Korver will take on another player with a lot of EPT success, Mercier.

Phil Gordon def. Tom Dwan
This was a bout drawing quite a bit of online poker forum attention, but like Mercier v. Negreanu, it was over in a flash. Gordon and Dwan were fairly evenly stacked with Gordon holding 23,000 chips to durrrr’s 17,000. A series of preflop raises found the duo all-in with Dwan holding AQ to Gordon’s 77. The pocket pair held up as the board ran out KT234 and Dwan made an early exit. Perhaps since he and Antonius are both out, we might see some Challenge play?

Phil Laak def. John Juanda
Jennifer Tilly pointed out that Laak’s victory over John Juanda made it three for three for the Phils and the pressure is now on Hellmuth to make it a perfect four for four for the moniker. On the final hand of play Laak actually got it in with the worst of it, holding A2 to Juanda’s 66. The AKQ flop favored Laak though and, while Juanda picked up a diamond draw with the 9 on the turn, the river 8 was no help to Juanda, so Laak advanced.

Round Two Pairings:
Phil Ivey vs. Scotty Nguyen
Joe Hachem vs. Gabe Kaplan
Jason Mercier vs. Pieter de Korver
Phil Gordon vs. Phil Laak

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