PokerStars Team Online Pro Richard Veenman was just seen scooping up a pot. He held the which went nicely with the board of . We're guessing he was pretty happy after that flop!
The action is a bit subdued so far but with the field growing by the minute we know things will only get more exciting from here!
The first few levels of any limit tournament can be grueling, especially one where the chips are so deep; with that said, we've been racking our brains trying to find things worth reporting (seeing as most pots are so small at this point). One of the things we've decided to do was go through the field and count the number of players wearing a hat . . . we told you it's slow.
According to the tournament clock, there are 86 players currently registered. Of those, 23 players are wearing hats of some sort. Many are ball caps, some stocking caps, and there are even a few fedoras.
Eric Baldwin raised under the gun and received a single caller in the form of Erik Cajelas on the button. Baldwin continuation bet the flop, which his counterpart called. When the dealer burned and turned the , Baldwin bet, Cajelas quickly raised, and the man known as "basebaldy" laid his hand down.
They may be small pots here in Level 1, but first blood goes to Cajelais.
Matt 'hoss_tbf' Hawrilenko recently tweeted that the winner of this Championship event should receive an asterisk since Terrence Chan won't be playing. That's certainly high praise coming from Hawrilenko who is no slouch when it comes to limit hold'em.
There are currently 82 players in tonight's tournament and even with characters such as Phil Laak and Daniel Negreanu in attendance, all the tables seem eerily quiet so far. Most of the players seem to be rather laid back, and with 30,000 chips to start, these first few levels are likely to be fairly stress-free as most pots will be rather small.
One testament to how relaxed the players are may be that the massage therapists aren't really being utilized yet. A lot of the pro players tend to take advantage of the stress-relieving hands of the Rio's massage therapists, but so far Jeffrey Lisandro is the only player to be paired with a therapist.
We've heard many of the players discussing the importance, or lack thereof, of playing the first few levels of a limit-hold'em tournament. We expect there will be quite a few late registrants, but new faces keep flowing in. We've recently spotted Eric "basebaldy" Baldwin, Mike Thorpe, Shaun Deeb, Tyler Bonkowski, Matt Hawrilenko, Greg Debora, David "ODB" Baker, and Brett Richey among the field, having finally made their way to their respective tables.
When it comes to the World Series of Poker, it is hard to find tournaments more exciting than the $10,000 Championship events. Today, a throng of professionals and limit aficionados are expected to flock to the Pavilion Room for Event #27: $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship.
Last year, the same event drew 171 players and saw Matt Keikoan, a former prop player from the San Francisco Bay area, defeat a tough table to capture his second gold bracelet, not to mention the $425,969 first-place prize.
Here is a look at last year's final table:
2010 $10K Limit Hold’em Championship Results
Place
Player
Earnings
1
Matt Keikoan
$425,969
2
Daniel Idema
$263,243
3
Kyle Ray
$190,701
4
Jameson Painter
$140,740
5
Brock Parker
$105,782
6
Zvi Groysman
$80,884
7
Simon Morris
$62,897
8
Michael Mizrachi
$49,732
9
David Chiu
$39,959
10
Anh Van Nguyen
$32,614
This particular tournament traditionally draws one of the toughest fields of the summer, and we expect today will be no different, a fact not lost on Daniel Negreanu when he tweeted: “Skipped the noon tourney to focus on the 10k limit holdem tonight. Arguably the toughest tournament of the WSOP all the specialists come out.” It may take three to four days, but soon one player will join the list of $10,000 Limit Hold’em Champions that dates back to 2005.
Former $5,000-$10,000 Limit Hold’em Champions
Year
Event
Entrants
Player
Earnings
2005
Event #28 ($5,000)
269
Dan Schmeich
$404,585
2007
Event #18 ($5,000)
257
Saro Jason Getzoyan
$333,379
2008
Event #30 ($10,000)
218
Rob Hollink
$496,931
2009
Event #33 ($10,000)
185
Greg Mueller
$460,836
2010
Event #29 ($10,000)
171
Matt Keikoan
$425,969
Action is set to kick off at 5 PM PST here in the Pavilion Room at the Rio. Be sure to stay with PokerNews throughout the evening as we’ll bring you updates on the players in field, including all the action and eliminations. See you then!