Pros at the WSOP Main Event will look for any small advantage they can gain when choosing between one of four starting days.

The best strategy depends on who you ask.

“I was going to play in Day 1a,” said Eugene Katchalov. “But I didn’t want to have four days off between day one and day two, so I chose Day 1c instead.”

“Day 1a is probably the softest because no one plays it,” said three-time WSOP bracelet winner Daniel Alaei. “Everyone I know is playing today [1c].”

Still, Alaei likes his Day 1c draw.

“Even if there are 200 pros, there are still 2,500 other people,” he said.

By choosing 1c, Alaei also bought himself a little more rest between his bracelet winning Pot-Limit Omaha event that finished late on Sunday and his noon start time on Wednesday.

Terrence Chan prefers a more formulaic approach in selecting his starting day.

“I think there are softer fields on different days, but it’s harder to predict than most pros think,” said Chan. “I think this year Day 1d will be the softest because it’s closest to the weekend and the most people [amateurs] can take that day off of work.”

Hoyt Corkins also believes the last day could provide the softest field.

“You’ve got the most people traveling and flying in for Day 1d, so that’s probably the softest, but I haven’t studied these things,” Corkins said.

For those hoping to capitalize on Day 1d, registering with plenty of time to spare ought to be the number one priority. Last year’s Day 1d sold out and left some players out in the cold. While the WSOP has taken measures to prevent that from happening this year, there is still a large crowd expected.

“I always pick Day 1c because it has the biggest field without the fiasco of Day 1d,” said Amnon Filippi. “The first two days don’t have the bigger fields.”

Finally last year’s Main Event Champion Joe Cada takes a superstitious, yet straight forward approach.

“I chose 1C because that was my starting day last year,” Cada said.

The 2010 WSOP continues through July 17. For comprehensive coverage of the WSOP tune in to PokerListings’ Live Updates and News.

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The online poker room introduced the two players as members of Team PokerStars Pro during a press conference at the Palms on Tuesday.

Williams mentioned he was happy to be a part of the PokerStars family.

“It’s quite special to be part of Team PokerStars,” said Williams. “I’ve always felt it’s the biggest and best site there is.”

“Being part of a product that you can endorse whole-heartedly is amazing.”

Both players are young but have experienced a lifetime of poker over the last decade.

A former Magic: The Gathering player, Williams rose to poker stardom when he finished runner-up to current Team PokerStars member Greg Raymer in the 2004 WSOP Main Event.

It was the best ever finish for an African American in the Main Event and Williams earned $3.5 million for his second place finish.

Over the next few years Williams was never short of media exposure as Bodog Pro and was featured on reality game show King of Vegas and in his own Raw Vegas video blog.

His poker record is also impeccable with second place finish in the WPT Borgata Poker Open for $573,800 in 2004, a WSOP bracelet win in the 2006 $1,500 Seven-Card Stud event.

Most recently Williams won the WPT World Championship at Bellagio for $1.5 million to bump his lifetime earnings to $7.9 million.

Williams is hopeful his game will only improve as a member Team PokerStars Pro.

“If I’m struggling or I have questions about my game I’m going to have world champions that I can turn to,” he said.

Meanwhile Vanessa Selbst is one of the premier female players in the game with five WSOP final tables, a victory in the 2008 WSOP $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha for $227,933.

Selbst won NAPT Mohegan Sun back in April for $750,000, which bumped her lifetime earnings up to $1.6 million.

Selbst was born in Brooklyn, New York, and cut her teeth playing online poker where she was known as fslexcduck.

She’s currently a law student at Yale and an instructor at the online poker training site Deuces Cracked.

Selbst and Williams will join a team that already includes Daniel Negreanu, Joe Hachem, Vanessa Rousso, Greg Raymer, Chris Moneymaker, Jason Mercier, Barry Greenstein and many more players from around the globe.

Both players will play in the ongoing 2010 WSOP Main Event.

The 2010 WSOP continues through July 17. For comprehensive coverage of the WSOP tune in to PokerListings’ Live Updates and News.

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The Main Event is just round the corner – Day 1a starting tomorrow – but there were still another four big prizepool tournaments to excite the many fascinated World Series of Poker fans.

We saw two tournaments play to finals – which will be settled tomorrow – one more Championship bracelet handed out and the postponed Tournament of Champions event also played to a finish.

It was a day to whet the appetite for the poker riches that lie ahead. Here’s how it played out.

Event 54 – $1k No-Limit Hold’em

David Peters entered the day handily-placed as chip leader, but with 47 players still left, he was going to have to work hard if he was to maintain this position by the end of the day.

Work hard he did however, using guile, good poker sense and just a little luck to keep control of the chip lead and by the time the tournament had been reduced to the final nine, he still headed the pack.

The last nine will return at 3 p.m. tomorrow to play it out for the bracelet and it should be an intriguing contest.

Event 55 – $10k Pot-Limit Omaha Championship

It is always tough to predict the pace of Omaha contests. Sometimes they can flash by in a blink of an eye whereas othertimes a more cautious approach can prevail.

This contest definitely fell into the latter category although there were plenty of exciting moments along the way.

Eventually it was high-stakes player Daniel Alaei and Miguel Proulx who made it through to heads-up and once the final card had been dealt – Alaei was the last man left standing – claiming the $780,599 first prize money and his second WSOP bracelet.

Event 56 – $2.5k No-Limit Hold’em

A tough-as-nails field returned 73-handed to play down to the final table and an attritional contest saw that benchmark reached in the early hours of the morning.

Tomer Berda ran well enough to snatch the chip lead by the finish of the contest, but when the remaining nine players return to the Rio at 3 p.m. tomorrow, he will have EPT Prague Champion Salvatore Bonavena amongst others hot on his heels.

They’ll be playing it out for an impressive $825,976 in prize money as well as the last WSOP bracelet left to claim before the Main Event.

WSOP 2010 Tournament of Champions

The best of the best gathered to fight for the coveted Tournament of Champions title, so it was no surprise to see a field bejewelled with talent assembled to play it out for the title.

XXX was the man who ran out with the title and can legitimately call himself the Champion of Champions – at least till next year.

For more information on how Day 38 of the WSOP played out, including videos, blogs and news stories, click through to PokerListings’ dedicated WSOP 2010 section.

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The Main Event is just round the corner – Day 1a starting tomorrow – but there were still another four big prizepool tournaments to excite the many fascinated World Series of Poker fans.

We saw two tournaments play to finals – which will be settled tomorrow – one more Championship bracelet handed out and the postponed Tournament of Champions event also played to a finish.

It was a day to whet the appetite for the poker riches that lie ahead. Here’s how it played out.

Event 54 – $1k No-Limit Hold’em

David Peters entered the day handily-placed as chip leader, but with 47 players still left, he was going to have to work hard if he was to maintain this position by the end of the day.

Work hard he did however, using guile, good poker sense and just a little luck to keep control of the chip lead and by the time the tournament had been reduced to the final nine, he still headed the pack.

The last nine will return at 3 p.m. tomorrow to play it out for the bracelet and it should be an intriguing contest.

Event 55 – $10k Pot-Limit Omaha Championship

It is always tough to predict the pace of Omaha contests. Sometimes they can flash by in a blink of an eye whereas othertimes a more cautious approach can prevail.

This contest definitely fell into the latter category although there were plenty of exciting moments along the way.

Eventually it was high-stakes player Daniel Alaei and Miguel Proulx who made it through to heads-up and once the final card had been dealt – Alaei was the last man left standing – claiming the $780,599 first prize money and his third WSOP bracelet.

Event 56 – $2.5k No-Limit Hold’em

A tough-as-nails field returned 73-handed to play down to the final table and an attritional contest saw that benchmark reached in the early hours of the morning.

Tomer Berda ran well enough to snatch the chip lead by the finish of the contest, but when the remaining nine players return to the Rio at 3 p.m. tomorrow, he will have EPT Prague Champion Salvatore Bonavena amongst others hot on his heels.

They’ll be playing it out for an impressive $825,976 in prize money as well as the last WSOP bracelet left to claim before the Main Event.

WSOP 2010 Tournament of Champions

The best of the best gathered to fight for the coveted Tournament of Champions crown, so it was no surprise to see a field bejewelled with talent assembled to play it out for the title.

Huck Seed was the man who ran out with the title and can legitimately call himself the Champion of Champions – at least until next year.

To read in more detail about how the TOC played out, click through to the full recap of this event.

For more information on how Day 38 of the WSOP played out, including videos, blogs and news stories, click through to PokerListings’ dedicated WSOP 2010 section.

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Once again the casino was a a hub of activity as the WSOP played out with the $10k Main Event looming ever closer.

There was so much activity that the scheduled Tournament of Champions competition had to be postponed till tomorrow.

Here’s how today’s action went down.

Event 52 – $25k No-Limit Hold’em Six-Max

The final six players still in contention reconvened today to finish off what they started and when an incendiary final table had blazed its way to a conclusion, Daniel “djk123″ Kelly was the man left holding the bracelet and the incredible $1,315,518 first prize money.

The 21 year old American defeated Shawn Buchanan heads-up to land the bracelet, and along the way he also saw off the challenge of Player of the Year contender, the double-braceleted Frank Kassela.

“I want to win more,” a hungry Kelly said afterwards, who looks like he will now become the latest addition to the group of young players known as the “Brunson 10.”

Event 54 – $1k No-Limit Hold’em

596 players were back in action for day 2 as the survivors of Day 1a and Day 1b met up to do battle.

A tough contest ensued and when they bagged and tagged the chips by the end of play, Sean Prendiville headed the chip counts with 47 players left.

They’ll return to contend the bracelet tomorrow at 2.30 p.m..

Event 55 – $10k Pot-Limit Omaha Championship

The Pot-Limit Omaha Championship saw many stellar names left with hope of a last bracelet before the Main Event written all over their faces.

By the end, most of them had had that hope wiped clean off their visages – Devilfish, durrrr and Phil Hellmuth all crashing out.

However, Alex Kravchenko, Ludovic Lacay and Daniel Alaei are still some of the big names hunting the bracelet and the final nine players will return at 4.00 p.m. tomorrow to play to a finish.

Event 56 – $2.5k No-Limit Hold’e

The final event before the Main Event saw 1,941 hopefuls register for Day 1 in a bid to get out of it for the Series.

Only 507 made it through to Day 2 and by the time 10 levels had come and gone, this number had been reduced to 85.

They will return tomorrow at 3.00 p.m. and James Mackey is the man they will all be chasing.

Ante Up For Africa

Celebrities from all walks of life gathered together in the Rio today to show a little generosity, have a little fun and play a little poker.

Film stars like Matt Damon and Don Cheadle rubbed shoulders with the likes of retired NFL halfback Jerome Bettis and Australian cricketer Shane Warne – playing out a tournament filled with fun and laughter – and plenty of generous donations.

The final saw poker pro Phil Gordon facing off against Shannon Elizabeth, who straddles the poker and movie worlds, and she also straddled Gordon when he defeated her heads up.

Gordon was quick to donate his $130,641 winnings to the charity, commenting, “I wish the rest of my WSOP had gone the way this tournament went.”

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