PokerStars Team Pro USA members Greg Raymer and Daniel Negreanu are seated together at Table 286. They have some stiff competition surrounding them in the forms of David "Bakes" Baker, Max Pescatori and Justin Bonomo.
Raymer even recognized the toughness of the table when he Tweeted: "You expect a tough field, but this table has zero (even slightly) soft spots."
Hold'em
Justin Bonomo started the madness with a preflop raise. Daniel Negreanu called before Yuval Bronshtein popped it up on the button. Play folded to Bonomo who re-raised with Negreanu calling again, before Bronshtein capped it. Bonomo called and Negreanu called for the third time in the hand.
"I got my money on Daniel," laughed Bronshtein as the flop fell 
. Play checked to Bronshtein who fired a bet. Bonomo tried the check-raise but it didn't scare anyone as both opponents made the call.
The turn was the 
. Bonomo fired a bet, Negreanu called and Bronshtein announced a raise as a huge pot was brewing. Bonomo called, and Negreanu called for his sixth time in the hand.
The river brought the 
and again it was check, check to Bronshtein who fired once more. Bonomo looked him up as Negreanu had seen enough. Bronshtein tabled 
which was good as Bonomo mucked.
Bonomo slips to 26,600, Negreanu is still around starting stack as Bronshtein jumps out to 35,000.
Omaha Hi-Low
Four players saw a flop of 
and Maria Ho bet 300. Freddy Deeb raised to 600 and only Sirous Jamshidi and Ho called.
Ho led out for a 600 bet when the 
hit the turn and both Deeb and Jamshidi made the call. When the 
came on the river, Ho bet 600 and only Deeb called. Ho showed 
for a straight and Deeb mucked.
Ho is up to 35,000 while Deeb dropped to 35,000 and Jamshidi to 24,000.
Jean Robert Bellande has been very busy over the first level of play. Not so much on his own table, but more so on every other table in the room as he ran around to try and book some last longer side bet action.
We'd hate to speculate on what these side bets are exactly, so let's leave it to his recent Tweet:
"It seems I got a super tbl draw. Made a bunch of 1k last longers getting sm odds w Chad Bill Jason Crunk Clements, Scotty, Mizrachi...Lines: 1.5:1 vs Kessler and 1.4:1 vs Scotty and Juanda. 1.3:1 vs Bill C 1.2:1 w Bach, David Grey, Rob and Matt G (beat me hu for a bracelet)"
Hold'em
With a raise under the gun, Perry Friedman made the call in middle position before Annie Duke raised on the button. Al Barbieri then put in another raise from the small blind to force the UTG-player to fold, as Friedman and Duke made the call.
The flop landed 
and Barbieri led out. Friedman raised before Duke re-raised. Barbieri had seen enough as he folded, but Friedman re-popped it once again. Duke made the call.
The turn was the 
and Friedman fired a bet but Duke responded with another raise. Friedman called, before check-calling on the 
river.
Duke showed 
for top two pair but Friedman had 
for a set of fives to take it down. Duke slips to 25,000 with Friedman now up to 36,000.
This event is a new one to the WSOP schedule after the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event evolved into the Player's Championship this year. The $10,000 buy-in level usually provides somewhere around the 170-200 player mark but it looks like we're going to eclipse that mark today which is a great result.
It appears that the number of entrants today will actually be greater than the number of entrants for any of the poker variants as individual events over the past two years.
Holdem (Limit): 2009 - 185 entrants, 2010 - 171 entrants
Omaha/8: 2009 - 179 entrants, 2010 - 212 entrants
Razz: There is no $10,000 Razz event
Stud: 2009 - 142 entrants, 2010 - 150 entrants
Stud/8: 2009 - 164 entrants, 2010 - 170 entrants
So it's interesting to observe that H.O.R.S.E. as a whole is proving more popular than any of the disciplines individually, as mixed games, especially at the lower limits, are growing in popularity.
Stud
Ralph Perry: 
(X) / 
Allen Kessler: 
(X) / 
Ralph Perry was betting every street up through fifth and getting called by Allen Kessler. On sixth street, Kessler bet and was raised by Perry. Kessler had made a wheel, but unbeknownst to him at the time, Perry had made a bigger straight.
On seventh street Kessler checked and then called a bet by Perry only to see the bad news. Lucky for him, he lost close to the minimum on the hand. Kessler is down to 25,500 while Perry sits with 31,000.
With the start of Level 2 comes the beginning of the tournament for some late registrants. Among those who have just taken their seats are Ashton Griffin, Eli Elezra, Dewey Tomko, Abe Mosseri, John Hennigan, Noah Boeken, Toto Leonidas, Justin Smith, Michael Mizrachi, James Dempsey, Chino Rheem, Michael Binger and Vladimir Shchemelev.
Level: 2
Blinds: 150/300
Ante: 0
As is usually the case with the early levels of limit tournaments, the massage therapists in the room are hard at work. Phil Ivey, Mel Judah, Bruno Fitoussi and Greg Mueller are just a few of the players currently utilizing their services.
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