2011 World Series of Poker

Official Day 1 Chip Counts

With two day ones, two day twos, an unofficial final table and a heads up match, June 9th is shaping up to be another exciting day at the 2011 WSOP.

The second limit hold’em tournament of the 2011 World Series of Poker got underway today with 337 runners who created a prizepool of $920,010. The numbers were down a little from last year, no doubt due to this year’s $3,000 price tag as compared to last year’s $2,000 buy in. By the end of the night, only 163 players remained in contention for the $220,817 first-place prize, with Marco Traniello emerging as the Day 1 chip leader with 54,000. (It is not Markus Herbel who listed his stack at over 70,000 but actually has just over 10,000).

The tournament drew some of the biggest names in poker including some former winners of this event, Todd Witteles and Daniel Negreanu. Unfortunately, both were among the day’s early eliminations. Other notables who started the day but ultimately made their way to the exit wereTom “durrrr” Dwan, Michael Mizrachi, Ted Forrest, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Laak, David Benyamine, and Matt Hawrilenko.

While many big names failed to survive, others thrived. A few of the pros who’ll be back in action on Day 2 are Shaun Deeb (36,900), Jeff Shulman (33,400), Matt Glantz (29,000), Justin Bonomo (24,300), Dwyte Pilgrim (22,500), Maria Ho (22,000), and Jason Mercier (19,500), just to name a few. There are also a few players toward the top of the chip counts that’ll no doubt give Traniello a run for his money including Victor Ramdin (44,000), Casey McCarrel (42,000), Tobin Banks (41,700), Shawn Buchanan (40,200), Nicholas Grippa (36,900), and “Crazy” Mike Thorpe (36,400).

Who will join the proud list of limit hold’em winners?

Former $2,000-$3,000 Limit Hold’em Champions

The $3,000 limit-hold'em title is up for grabs, so be sure to join the PokerNews Live Reporting Team tomorrow at 3 PM PST as we make our way to the money!

We are sad to report that Phil Laak, David Benyamine, and Liz Lieu were all eliminated during the last few hands of the night.

The tournament staff just announced the remaining players will play four more hands before calling it a night!

Jose Ignacio Barbero raised from the cutoff and got three-bet by the button. He made the call and the flop got checked by both players. On the turn, Barbero checked again but this time his opponent bet. Barbero quickly released his hand and said “aces full”. The player actually one hand stronger as he flashed for quads and the table had a good laugh afterwards.