Event #17: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em
Day 1 Started
2010 World Series of Poker
Event #17: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em
Day: 1
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2010 World Series of Poker
Buy-in
$5,000
Prize Pool
$3,722,400
Entries
792
Level
31
Blinds
80,000 / 160,000
Ante
20,000
It's $5K Day!
![[user66118]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
Good morning and welcome to Day 12 of the 2010 World Series of Poker!
Today kicks off with one of our favorite events to cover, the $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em extravaganza. A field of 655 runners played this event last year, an event that culminated in one of the more emotional and memorable bracelets of 2009. Brian Lemke is the defending champion, and he dedicated his victory to his recently deceased cousin and beloved member of the poker media, Justin Shronk. Lemke had the entire cheering gallery rooting for him, and there wasn't a dry eye in the house when he finally hoisted his bracelet.
We expect another good show this year as this event traditionally draws a small but talented field. The numbers have been climbing as this 2010 WSOP progresses, and we might be lucky enough to push 700 players into their chairs today.
We're about twenty minutes away from our scheduled start, and the room appears just about set for play. The dealers are in their chairs, the chips are out on the felt, and the decks have been suited and double checked. It won't be long before we see some players begin to trickle into their seats. All systems are go.
We'll be back in just a few minutes with the shuffle up and deal.
Level: 1
Blinds: 50/75
Ante: 0
Cards Are In The Air!
The players are slowly filling the seats of the Pavillion Room as this event is now underway!
What Are The Blinds?
Each player is starting with a 15,000-chip start bank, but the early whispers going around the room are about the starting blind level, with several tables already calling the floor to get confirmation. Yes indeed, we're kicking things off with the unique 50/75 level.
Early Cooler = $5k In The Hole
You may fork over $5,000 to enter, and you may get 15,000 in chips to start with, but sometimes that is not enough to stop all of your chips going into the middle within the first five minutes of play.
That happened to Vincent Jacques but fortunately for him he was on the favorable side of a cooler board of 
. Jacques fired 4,400 on the turn before moving all in on the river. His opponent rocked back in his chair with a wry smile, almost in acknowledgement of what had just unfolded. He decided he couldn't fold his set and tabled pocket fives but Jacques showed 
for top set for an early double up.
Watt Continues Where He Left Off
Newly crowned WSOP bracelet winner Simon Watt is back into the action today and he's off to a bright start after collecting an early pot.
Catching the action on the turn, Watt fired 700 on the turn and 1,500 on the river on the 
board and his opponent looked him up. Watt tabled 
for the flush to take it down.
Some Tough Tables
We've got a big list of familiar faces in this room, so we won't bother to list them all since you can see who we're tracking in the "Chip counts" tab. We will, however, tell you about some of the potentially entertaining and difficult tables we can see in the field.
Table 1 is just sick. Terrence Chan is in the four seat, and he's happy to be across the table from the corner of death. Seats eight, nine, and ten are occupied by Isaac Haxton, Isaac Baron, and Tom Marchese respectively.
Table 12 is another ridiculous draw. Seats two and three hold Scott Seiver and Scott Montgomery, and Adam Junglen and Aaron Been are in seats eight and nine.
Table 62 is our international table of destruction with David "Devilfish" Ulliott, Chris Moorman, and Annette Obrestad. They're one of the high tables though, so they won't be together for too long.
More to come...
The Defending Champ, and a Few Others
The aforementioned Brian Lemke is in the house today, sitting at Table 36 with nine unfamiliar faces.
Since that's not much of a post by itself, we'll give a shout out to some of the other bracelet winners in the field today.
Like, for example, TJ Cloutier who has taken a breather from the pits to come play some poker in the Pavillion. He has six bracelets, he looks like a chocolate chip cookie, and he's sitting with Allen Bari and Chris Bell over on Table 8.
Vitaly Lunkin is in our field, as are Jason Mercier, Daniel Negreanu, Humberto Brenes, and Simon Watt, who just joined the bracelet club about 36 hours ago.
It's not a bracelet, but Nacho Barbero is also here, fresh off the second of his back-to-back LAPT titles in South America. He's sharing table space with Mercier.
Black and Filippi Talk Strategy
Andy Black has stopped by to visit Amnon Filippi and have a quick chat at table 14.
Black: "I'm still in the 1k event with 51,000 at 4k/8k...what range do you shove with on the first hand? I'm second to act..."
Filippi: "I don't know...any pair?"
Black: "Well obviously I'm shoving any pair! What else?"
Filippi: "Ace-queen...I probably limp with ace-jack and see what happens..."
Black: "I only have 51,000!"