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Event 20: $5,000 Limit Hold'em
Day 1 Completed
2012 World Series of Poker
Event 20: $5,000 Limit Hold'em
Day: 1
Event Info
2012 World Series of Poker
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
Buy-in
$5,000
Prize Pool
$780,200
Total Entries
166
Level
27
Blinds
40,000 / 80,000
Ante
0
Players Left 1 / 166
Filter
Level 8
: 500/1,000, 0 ante
Today marked the day for the biggest Limit Hold'em buy-in of this year's World Series of Poker. A total of 166 players showed up all dishing out $5,000 to compete in the most mechanical form of poker. Play started off traditionally slow, with many big bets in play, but there were some very interesting tables to watch. Defending champ Daniel Idema was in the field, as was this year's WSOP Player of the Year leader, John Monnette. The latter will not be adding any points to his already impressive total as he busted out quickly. The title holder is still in the race as he survived the day with 3,500 chips.
In order to have some fun you need to get table talk going and there was plenty in this tournament. Over on Table 356, Daniel Negreanu, Eugene Katchalov and Jameson Painter sat down, and during a small pot some fun chatter started. You can read all about that here in the blog post.
One player always up for table talk, and some needling here and there, is Mike Thorpe. He's better known as "Crazy Mike" and proved once again he deserves that name. From the start he was very loud and active and especially Michael Winnett, who wore a dinosaur suit, was a big target.
Thorpe didn't survive the day just as, among others, David Chiu, Carlos Mortensen, Maria Ho, John Racener and Dan Kelly. Kelly started the day off in a very interesting situation matching up against seven other superstars. His table full of late registered players looked like this and many of them survived the first day of play.
| Seat | Name | WSOP Bracelets | Live Tournament Earnings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Erick Lindgren | 1 | $8,457,544 |
| 2 | Shawn Buchanan | 0 | $4,678,970 |
| 3 | Greg Mueller | 2 | $1,989,989 |
| 4 | Mark Radoja | 1 | $1,197,755 |
| 5 | John Juanda | 5 | $12,378,559 |
| 6 | Nick Schulman | 1 | $5,118,771 |
| 7 | Huck Seed | 4 | $7,260,200 |
| 8 | Unkown | - | - |
| 9 | Dan Kelly | 1 | $2,219,790 |
In total we lost just 57 players on day one and among the ones returning for more tomorrow we see Shawn Keller, Jason Mercier, Dwyte Pilgrim and Terrence Chan. Chip leader is Nicholas Derke followed by Warwick Mirzikinian who finished third in the $5,000 Mixed-Max cashing $162,443.
The tournament will resume at 2:00 PM local time with 109 players as we will make our way towards the money and ultimately the final table. A total of 18 players will cash in this event and the grand prize will be $206,760. See you all tomorrow for more Limit Hold'em action as PokerNews brings you the exclusive live coverage!
Here's how some of the players ended up finishing the night. We will have a wrap of the day's action and full chip counts up as soon as possible.
Level 8
: 500/1,000, 0 ante
Generally in a poker tournament we see the play substantially slow up towards the end of the night. This is true of most tournaments, no matter what the format, however it seems especially true of Limit Holdem. That's what has happened here as not much action has been taking place of late.
In other news, the tournament clock has been stopped and it has been announced that the players will partake in just six more hands.
Daniel Negreanu has just managed to double-up here in the crucial stages of the tournament, and while he may not have a comfortable chip stack, he is surviving.
In the hand in question, Negreanu and the players in the blinds took to a 
flop. All three players committed one bet on the flop and an 
hit the turn. The small blind checked and the big blind bet. Negreanu then flicked in his last chip and with the small blind out of the way, the two players turned their hands over.
"I have a pair," Negreanu's opponent said.
"You already got the full house?" asked Negreanu as he turned over 
for a flopped straight.
The player tabled his 
and Negreanu said, "I just feel an eight coming."
It never came as the 
completed the board and Negreanu took the double-up.
We are pretty sure Todd Witteles is leading the pack with a 53,000 chip stack. We are nearing the end of the day and Witteles is looking really strong.
We just moved around the tournament area looking for the largest stack in the room and we were faced with at least a dozen stacks between thirty and forty thousand. The only player who is nearing 50,000 in chips at the moment is Nicholas Derke. Let's see who comes out with the lead by the end of the night.
Level 8
: 500/1,000, 0 ante
Phil Ivey has just come bounding into the room and taken his seat in the tournament after a couple of hours of blinding down. For those who don't know, Ivey has recently made it to the final two tables of Event 17: $10,000 Pot-Limit Holdem. We are sure he will either try to get it in real soon or leave his stack and head back to the other side of the room.
Level 8
: 500/1,000, 0 ante
The last level of the night is just beginning. In around 60-minutes time, it will all be over and some of the best players in the world will be bagging up chips. In the mean time, plenty of those players will also be hitting the rail, so make sure to tune in.
