Photo Recap: Day 1 of WPT Southern Poker Championship

By BJ Nemeth

For the World Poker Tour, January has always meant a trip down to Mississippi, and this year was no different. The WPT Southern Poker Championship began Sunday with 214 players (a slight increase over last year’s field of 208), including defending champion Hoyt Corkins.

The total prizepool for this event is a little more than $2 million, with the top 27 spots getting paid, and $584,481 going to the winner. After five levels of action, there were 144 players remaining. Here’s a look at the top 10:

1. Robert Keller – 179,025
2. Gavin Smith – 144,525
3. Vitor Coelho – 136,250
4. Dermot Blain – 125,825
5. BJ McBrayer – 106,250
6. Joseph Cheong – 101,325
7. Andrew Lichtenberger – 99,125
8. Randy Smith – 92,400
9. Jonathan Little – 91,925
10. Gabe Costner – 91,050

And now, a photographic look back at Day 1 of the WPT Southern Poker Championship:

Shortly before Day 1 of the WPT Southern Poker Championship begins, Bill Edler rides the escalator into the Convention Center where the tournament is being held. Edler won the first WPT tournament ever held in Biloxi back in 2007.

WPT Announcer Mike Sexton welcomes the players to Biloxi before he gives the famous "Shuffle up and deal" to start play. Kimberly Lansing (left) and the Royal Flush Girls are laughing because the battery died on Sexton’s mic in the middle of his announcement.

The tournament was barely 15 minutes into the first level when Gavin Smith (foreground, left) lost a $100 prop bet to Ben Klier (standing, center). The bet had nothing to do with poker; it was to see who could chug a bottle of water the fastest.

ClubWPT qualifier Terry Hammock (left) plays alongside Dan O’Brien on Day 1 of the WPT Southern Poker Championship. Hammock made it to Day 2 with a below-average stack, while O’Brien was a Day 1 casualty.

WPT Borgata champion Dwyte Pilgrim (left) watches as Matt Brady plays a hand early on Day 1. Brady was eliminated during Level 3, but still had a profitable trip to Biloxi, earning $57,616 a few days ago by winning the $1,500 no-limit hold’em prelim event.

The last two winners of this event found themselves seated side-by-side for most of Day 1. Hoyt Corkins (left) won this title last year, while Allen Carter took the trophy in 2009. Both players survived to Day 2, with Corkins a little above average and Carter a little below.

Andrew Lichtenberger took the chip lead early, and while he lost the top spot in the middle of the day, he stayed strong to finish seventh in chips with 99,125.

During the early levels, Randal Flowers (left) and Joseph Cheong traded chips back and forth and jokingly drove each other to drink. But in the end, Cheong got the best of it, busting Flowers late in the day to finish sixth in chips with 101,325.

Season VI WPT Player of the Year Jonathan Little has played a lot of WPT events, but this is the first one he ever played with his father. Larry Little (pictured) won his seat here at the Beau Rivage by entering a $100 satellite. Both Littles survived to Day 2, though Jonathan has a top-10 chip stack, while Larry finished below average (but still healthy).

In the middle of the day, Gavin Smith catapulted to the top of the leaderboard after flopping a full house with pocket sevens and watching two players move all in ahead of him. One of those players was two-time WPT winner Alan Goehring, who had flopped trip sixes. Gavin won the hand, putting him over the 150,000-chip mark at a time when nobody else had 100,000. Short-stacked Todd Terry (right) counts the monstrous stack while Gavin is out of his seat.

It was no surprise that most players were keeping tabs on the AFC Championship game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New York Jets. Jared Jaffee (center left), who final tabled this event a year ago, wore a Jets jersey to show his allegiance, and didn’t seem too pleased to see the Steelers win to advance to the Superbowl. Shannon Shorr (center right) and Jonathan Little (far right) were among the others following the game.

Fan favorite Scotty Nguyen eyes his opponent late on Day 1. Five years ago, Nguyen won the WPT World Poker Open in Tunica, Mississippi, before the January WPT event moved to the Gulf Coast.

In the final minutes of the day, Robert Keller eliminated Tom Braband in a huge pot (full house over full house) to catapult over Gavin Smith and finish as the Day 1 chipleader with 179,025.

Gavin Smith was happy to finish the day second in chips (with 144,525), but he was much happier showing pictures of his newborn son Kingston to WPT anchor Kimberly Lansing.

Day 2 begins tomorrow (Monday) at 12:00 pm CT. Return to WorldPokerTour.com for continuing live coverage, including hand updates, frequent chip counts, video interviews with Kimberly Lansing, and the daily recap show with Jessica Welman and BJ Nemeth.