Event #38: $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em Championship
Day 1 Started
2010 World Series of Poker
Event #38: $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em Championship
Day: 1
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2010 World Series of Poker
Buy-in
$10,000
Prize Pool
$2,519,200
Entries
268
Level
28
Blinds
40,000 / 80,000
Ante
0
Welcome to Event #38, $10,000 World Championship Pot-Limit Hold'em
![[user25067]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
Today should be an exciting one at the WSOP for fans and railbirds as a slew of poker's heavy hitters are expected to descend on the Rio this afternoon for the $10,000 World Championship Pot-Limit Hold'em event. Last year, London's John Kabbaj topped a 275-player field to come away with his first WSOP bracelet, defeating a highly skilled final table that included the likes of Eric "basebaldy" Baldwin, Kirill Gerasimov, Isaac Haxton, Davidi Kitai, Jason Lester, Eugene Todd, and J.C. Alvarado.
So sit back, relax, re-check your WSOP fanstasy team standings and get ready. Action will kick off at 5 p.m. in the Amazon Room. We'll see you there!
Level: 1
Blinds: 75/150
Ante: 0
A Few Fun Tables
As expected, the field is littered with big names, and it's making for some tough tables around the room.
Right in front of our media desk is a table full of trouble with Steve O'Dwyer, Matt Graham, Dwyte Pilgrim, Eric Froehlich, and latecomer Tom Marchese.
In the middle of the floor, there is a table with Noah Schwartz, Marc Naalden, Freddy Deeb, and Anthony Roux.
Table 305 might be the early frontrunner for Table of Death. It seats Amnon Filippi, Justin Bonomo, Joe Hachem, Vitaly Lunkin, David Benefield, and Kevin Saul. As we were scratching down names, Christian Harder came and joined the fun, making that the toughest table in town. "Oh great! Another fish!" someone said as he sat down.
Adjacent to them sits a table with Pierre Neuville, Carlos Mortensen, Sandra Naujoks, and Amit Makhija all right in a row.
The Breakfast Club
Well, this is one of those WSOP fields that resembles a high-stakes high school cafeteria. You have your old-school pros like Humberto Brenes, Annie Duke, Jason Lester and Todd Brunson. You have your barely-21 internet hotshots like Andrew "Luckychewy" Lichtenberger, Stevie "stevie444" Chidwick, Ashton "theASHMAN103" Griffin and Dan "djk123" Kelly. You have your "Big Game" regulars like Tom Dwan, Alexander Kostritsyn, and Barry Greenstein. The prom king (Erick Lindgren) and the head cheerleader (Erica Schoenberg) are seated at adjacent tables. And then there are the foreign exchange students like Vitaly Lunkin, Roland de Wolfe, Ludovic Lacay, and last year's champion John Kabbaj.
Speaking of Kabbaj, he is seated at the same table as Nenad Medic, who won this event in 2008.
Another Tough Table
Allen Kessler and Sam Simon were the first two players seated at their table, and they were chatting it up like best pals before play began. Stein even scrawled a quick good luck doodle on Chainsaw's registration card.
A second check by that table sees that it's filled up tough with Stuart Rutter, Antony Lellouche, Jim Collpy, Barry Greenstein, and Annie Duke.
Rough Start for Racener
We picked up the action on the turn, with the board reading 
and 3,000 already in the pot. John Racener faced an 1,800 bet from his middle position opponent and decided to raise to 4,600 from the button. He earned a call, and the 
hit the river. The action was checked to Racener who bet 8,500. His opponent called.
Racener showed 
for nothing but a busted straight draw and watched the majority of his stack shipped to his opponent, who flopped top set with 
. Racener is down to 6,800 from his 30,000 starting stack.
Griffin Flops Two, River Kills Action
On a flop of 
, a player in early position check-called a bet of 2,000 from Ashton Griffin. That put about 6,000 in the pot going to the 
turn, and Griffin fired out another 4,500 chips. His opponent called again, and both men checked the scary river.
Griffin showed up 
, and his opponent flashed his 
as he mucked, sending the pot to Griffin. Both men flopped two pair, but the rest of the board kept the pot in check, and Griffin has his stack moving in the right direction with about 40,500 here in the early going.
Cloutier's Tight Laydown
Todd Brunson opened for 400, the button called and Eric Cloutier called from the big blind. Cloutier checked the 
flop over to Brunson, who bet 1,150. The button folded and Cloutier called. Both players checked the on the turn. The river was the 
and Cloutier check-folded to Brunson's 3,300 river bet, showing 
.
After the hand Brunson had 29,500 and Cloutier was on 36,500.
Pilgrim Has It
An unknown player raised the pot from the cutoff seat, and Dwyte Pilgrim re-potted from small blind. They actually let him raise a quarter extra after some confusion, and it was 1,725 total back to the initial raiser. He called.
The flop came out 
, and both players checked. The 
on the turn drew a delayed continuation bet of 3,500 from Pilgrim, and his opponent stared him down before calling.
The last card off was the , and Pilgrim fired another 4,600 at the pot. His opponent sighed and called, and Pilgrim turned over . Aces up was good enough to win that pot with a, "Wow," and move Pilgrim up to about 42,000.