LAS VEGAS, Nev. - When Phil Ivey stacked his chips before the second day of play in the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event at the World Series of Poker, he thought that he'd lost $10,000 chips overnight.
While the difference didn't change where he stood in the field (he was in fifth when the day began), it could have a dramatic impact on his chances in the tournament. Players started with $100,000 chips, so $10,000 represents 10 percent of a player's starting stack.
According to tournament director Jack Effel, however, the chips weren't missing. The most likely answer is that Ivey thought he had more chips than he actually had.
"Sometimes it gets late and these players miscount their chips," Effel said.
He went on to explain that at the end of each day for every tournament, players count their chips and put them in plastic bags and seals them. They print their name and their chip count on the bags, and the tournament staff takes the bags and locks them away in the cage overnight.
The next day, tournament staff places the bags on the tables prior to the start of play. When players arrive, they are responsible for opening the bags, and once again, counting the chips.
After Ivey lodged a complaint, Effel went back to the surveillance tapes and watched Ivey put his entire chip stack into the bag and seal it. He also watched the tapes to see if anything happened when the bags were in transit. He didn't find anything.
"The only way that it could have happened is if it ended up under the rail," Effel told Ivey.
The chip count update at the end of day one supports Effel's claim that the players often miscount their stacks.
Each of the 148 players received $100,000 chips at the start of the tournament, and since there was no color up yesterday, there should have been exactly $14.8 million chips in play at the end of the day. While the numbers aren't off by much, the total chip count reported by the players was $85,300 lower.
