The novel $10,000 Tag Team No-Limit Hold’em Champion event is Event #2 at the 2017 World Series of Poker and the first open event. The event began on Wednesday, May 31 and continues into the early days of June.
In the event, players substitute turns playing in the event. Each team can employ their own sub-in strategy, which adds another layer of strategy to the competition. The event has no breaks whatsoever, since any one of four players can be at the table at any given time.
102 separate teams entered the Tag Team event. After one day of play, exactly half of the teams remain in the competition. 51 teams begin Day 2 with the hope of winning the first open event at the 2017 WSOP. It began on the same day that the two-day $565 Casino Employees No-limit Hold’em launched. The employees event is the traditional 1st event each year.
Team Polk Leads after Day 1
“Team Polk” leads after one day of the event. Team Poker consists of team captain Doug Polk, Ryan Fee, Michael Finstein, and Jason Mo. The team finished the day with 240,600 chips. Michael Finstein helped the team with a run in the final hour of play, pushing the team to its lead. Finstein used a straight against Samantha Abernathy to double-up for his team.
Ryan Fee and Doug Polk won the $1000 Tag-Team event as a two-man team at last year’s World Series of Poker, so Team Polk appears to have the team concept mastered.
Team Staats Currently in 2nd Place
Team Staats currently has the second-biggest chip stack with 216,400 chips. Team Staats consists of Christopher Staats, Roland Israelashvili, and Orlando Romero. Team Tran holds third place in the chip lead at the moment, with 207,000 chips. Team Tran consists of poker veteran J.C. Tran, Antonio Gutierrez, and Nam Le.
The only other team with at least 200,000 chips is Team Chidwick. Team Chidwick is a 2-man team consisting of Stephen Chidwick and Dan Smith. Like Team Polk, Team Chidwick registered later, but was able to accumulate a sizable chip stack over the course of the day.
Michael Phelps Playing in a Tag-Team
The tag team receiving the most press before the event was “Team Gross”, a 4-man team with 3 professionals and one famous amateur. 23-time Olympic Gold Medalist Michael Phelps is a member of a team at the $10,000 Tag Team event. “Team Gross” includes 3-time WSOP bracelet winner Antonio Esfandiari, 2016 SHR Bowl winner Brian Rast, and team captain Jeff Gross.
Michael Phelps has been playing poker competitively since 2008. His first World Series of Poker appearance was back in 2013. Jeff Gross described Michael Phelps as the anchor of the team, though his assessment appeared to be in-good-fun.
Team Gross’s Closer
When asked whether Michael Phelps would be the team’s closer when it came to a theoretical final table, Gross and Esfandiari were hesitant to make that commitment. Both suggested Brian Rast would be the likely card player at the final table, if their team made it deep in the tournament.
Jeff Gross said, “Mike knows how to play, but I don’t know, if it’s deep-stacked, we’d probably have to let Rast drive. Maybe we have Rast chip them down and then Mike could come in and do that.”
While Gross was making his point, Antonio Esfandiari interjected, “Put in the King,” referring to Brian Rast, and then added, “You’ve gotta put in the closer.”
Team Deeb Busts Out
Not all of the teams that entered this year’s $10,000 Tag Team NHL event included famous players. With players able to share the $10k cost, it is one of the big-money events which lends itself to lesser known players entering.
Team Deeb, which included several poker professionals, was one of the notable teams to be eliminated on Day 1. Team Deeb consisted of team captain Shaun Deeb, as well as Daniel Weinman, Mike Gorodinsky, and Scott Seiver.
