The 2015 nine kicked off with a whimper, not a bang november. Regarding the first day’s play Sunday night, the focus was on players tanking and acting as if they had little desire for really playing poker.

Patrick Chan stumbled on the WSOP Main Event final table Sunday by having a tiny stack that lasted exactly two arms.

Chan woke up with K♠Q♣ in the small blind, facing an all-in bet by overwhelming chip leader Joe McKeehen. After careful consideration, Chan made the phone call with just 16 big blinds. In a near coin-flip situation, it was McKeehen securing to bust the stack that is short.

The excitement at the table that is final and ended with that hand. More than five hours later, whenever session concluded, viewers were kept wondering whether all the players were just searching to move up the pay slots, or were really interested in winning the competition.

Stern and Neuville viewers that are put Tilt

36-year-old Israeli Ofer Zvi Stern and 72-year old Belgian Pierre Neuville received critique from viewers for tanking, particularly Stern. Neuville took approximately 10 seconds to act almost every time after looking at his cards, despite the fact that he hardly ever played a hand.

In fact, Neuville was only included with a few hands the entire evening. He played so tight that he allowed his stack to dwindle down to proportions that are miniscule being eradicated in 7th destination to end the day.

But it absolutely wasn’t Neuville’s not enough interest in playing hands that irritated most audiences. It was his incessant tanking that is pre-flop. For the player that rarely played any tactile fingers, many found it disturbing to see him twiddle his thumb for 10 seconds before folding.

Luckily, for the poker that is angry, Neuville is gone. Unfortunately for those same fans, Stern is not. He has 32,400,000 potato chips, which is wonderful for 2nd spot. McKeehen remains the commanding chip leader with 91,450,000.

Stern ended up being much more active and aggressive than Neuville, but additionally seemed interested in getting TV time than playing poker. He tanked virtually every time it had been his turn to act. ESPN commentator Antonio Esfandiari even cracked jokes about Stern’s tanking.

Butteroni Busts in 8th

Federico Butteroni was not guilty of tanking, but was guilty of playing too tight. The Italian November Niner entered play with the smallest stack making no apparent efforts to increase it.

He relocated up the pay slot, earning an additional $96,000, when Chan busted, but which was the most effective he could do. Nevertheless, he stuck around for the couple of hours, thanks to only playing two fingers.

Together with his stack blinded down to approximately six blinds that are big Butteroni picked up A ♥J♣, but McKeehen woke up with A♠K♠. The better hand held up and Butteroni was ‘whamboozled,’ as ESPN WSOP commentator Norm Chad likes to say.

Josh Beckley and Tom Cannuli both survived the first time of the final table, but were also both noticeably absent from play most of the night.

The WSOP Main Event began with 6,420 players. It really is now down to six. Real play picks up again at 4:30 pm today, with television coverage on ESPN resuming Monday night at 5:00 pm Pacific Time, due to the 30 minute delay between real time play and air. They are going to play down to three tonight, with the showdown that is final on Tuesday night.