Paul Pierce challenging self in WSOP Main Event

Josh Reichard came prepared.

Not only did Reichard arrive Wednesday at the Rio Convention Center for Day 2C of the World Series of Poker Main Event wearing a Paul Pierce No. 34 Boston Celtics jersey, he had a Sharpie stashed in his pocket, too.

“I looked up my table draw online and noticed that he was at my table, so I decided to wear it,” said Reichard, who is from Janesville, Wis. “I’m a (Milwaukee) Bucks fan, but I’m a fan of certain players, and he’s one of them.”

Pierce, a free-agent forward who played last season with the Brooklyn Nets, is one of several prominent athletes competing in the $10,000 buy-in No-limit Texas Hold ’em World Championship.

In addition to Pierce, the Main Event field on Day 2C included former NBA player Earl Barron, Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight Martin Kampmann, soccer star Gerard Pique of Spain and former NFL defensive lineman Richard Seymour, to name a few.

NASCAR Nationwide Series driver Jason White also was one of the 700-plus players who survived Day 2A/2B on Tuesday.

“I think the competitiveness of it, I think the mental challenge of it, all the things that you experience as an athlete, except for the physical grind,” Pierce said about poker’s appeal to athletes. “You get all the other things out of it.”

This is the third World Series of Poker for Pierce, who has yet to cash in at an event but made a deep run in the $10,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha tournament last year.

Pierce said he started playing poker 10 years ago and spent three or four years playing online before moving into live games.

“It’s a challenge. It’s a fun game,” Pierce said. “It’s something that you feel like you get a grasp on it and then it slips away. I love the challenge of it.”

Reichard, a successful tournament grinder with more than $197,000 in career earnings, according to the Hendon Mob Poker Database, was eliminated at the end of the day’s second level. But he made sure to get Pierce to sign his jersey before heading out of the Amazon Room.

“My father-in-law gave it to me because it was too big, but now that I got it autographed, I’m going to give it back to him,” Reichard said. “It was fun. I’d rather play with an actual celebrity than a famous poker player.”

Pierce started play Wednesday with 60,400 chips and had 103,700 when the 90-minute dinner break started at 7 p.m. Seymour wasn’t as fortunate, as he was knocked out by Raj Vohra during the first level of play. Seymour and Vohra each had three aces, with Seymour holding the better kicker, but Vohra hit a seven on the river card to make a full house.

“I got to get a picture of that hand,” a stunned Seymour said.

Day 3 of the Main Event resumes at noon today and continues through Monday. The final nine players return Nov. 10 at the Rio’s Penn &Teller Theater to compete for the $10 million first prize.

The 6-foot-7-inch Pierce attracted plenty of attention, but he wasn’t even the most popular player in the Amazon Room. That distinction belonged to Phil Ivey, who had a massive chip stack and was setting himself up for another deep run in the Main Event.

Ivey, who won his 10th WSOP bracelet last month, eliminated two players in a big hand before the second break and had the unofficial lead with 421,000 chips at the dinner break. By comparison, none of the players on Day 2A/2B surpassed the 400,000-chip mark until the final level of play.

Ivey finished seventh in the Main Event in 2009, and he was 10th in 2003. Should Ivey continue to collect chips, he no doubt will be the crowd favorite as the tournament progresses.

Among those eliminated Wednesday were 13-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, 1998 Main Event champion Scotty Nguyen, 2009 champion Joe Cada and 2010 champion Jonathan Duhamel.

Contact reporter David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidSchoenLVRJ.