2011 World Series of Poker

Event #15: $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em
Day: 1
Event Info

2011 World Series of Poker

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
k9
Prize
$227,232
Event Info
Buy-in
$1,500
Prize Pool
$1,032,750
Entries
765
Level Info
Level
25
Blinds
20,000 / 40,000
Ante
0

Event #15: $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em

Day 1 Completed

Official End-of-Day Chip Counts

Player Chips Progress
Ronald Lee us
Ronald Lee
122,700
Jeff Kimber gb
Jeff Kimber
95,500
James Carroll us
James Carroll
92,300 63,800
Luke Marsh gb
Luke Marsh
89,700
Eric Ladny us
Eric Ladny
83,700
Nick Davies
Nick Davies
82,000
Daisuke Endo
Daisuke Endo
77,600
Dennis Jeffrey
Dennis Jeffrey
69,800
Davidi Kitai be
Davidi Kitai
WSOP 3X Winner
Winamax
69,800 24,800
Bradley Craig us
Bradley Craig
69,700
Tommy Felice
Tommy Felice
66,400
Matt Widdoes
Matt Widdoes
65,700
Ali Eslami us
Ali Eslami
WSOP 1X Winner
62,000 17,500
Balazs Botond hu
Balazs Botond
62,000 -28,000
Dajuan Whorley
Dajuan Whorley
61,900
Justin Daley
Justin Daley
61,100
Ariel  Celestino
Ariel Celestino
58,900
Sean Nolan
Sean Nolan
58,800
Elias Brussianos
Elias Brussianos
55,800
Nick Brancato
Nick Brancato
55,200
James Dempsey gb
James Dempsey
WSOP 1X Winner
53,800 13,800
John Racener us
John Racener
WSOP 1X Winner
52,200 2,200
Stephen O'Dwyer ie
Stephen O'Dwyer
50,100
Christian Harder us
Christian Harder
46,500 -8,600
John Dolan us
John Dolan
46,000

That's a Wrap!

Level 10 : 500/1,000, 0 ante
Chip Leader Ronald Lee- 122,700
Chip Leader Ronald Lee- 122,700

We've officially wrapped up the first ten levels of play in today's $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em event. When the day began we had 765 entrants. Now, after ten strenuous hours of play, we're down to the final 88 . Ronald Lee, 3rd place finisher in the 2010 WSOPE Main Event, finished today as our chip leader with 122,700 in chips. Trying to stay on the heels of Lee is James Carroll with 92,300.

We saw several big names enter the tournament, only to hit the rail before play ended for the day. Notable eliminations from today's field include Layne Flack, David Sklansky, Paul Magriel, Antonio Esfandiari, Humberto Brenes, and Liv Boeree. That being said, there are still some big names still alive in the field including this event's defending champion James Dempsey with over 50,000. While his stack is not the biggest in the room, he has navigated the waters of this tournament before and it will be interesting to see how he fairs against the field in day two. Other notables still alive include Joe Sebok, Ali Eslami, John Racener, John Dolan, and Alessio Isaia.

Play will resume tomorrow at 2:30 PST in the Amazon Room here at the Rio. Join us for full coverage tomorrow as we play ten more exciting levels of pot-limit hold'em!

Newburger Takes a Hit

Level 10 : 500/1,000, 0 ante

Jason Newburger opened with a raise from the button and was reraised when the player in the big blind shoved in the rest of his stack. Newburger made the call and we were off to the flop.

Newburger: {A-Clubs}{3-Clubs}
Opponent: {Q-Clubs}{9-Spades}

The board fell {4-Hearts}{J-Clubs}{2-Diamonds}{9-Diamonds}{9-Clubs} and Newburger doubled up his opponent and was knocked down to 44,500.

Tags: Jason Newburger

Flitz Finds Chips

Level 10 : 500/1,000, 0 ante

From late position, Justin Flitz raised the action to 1,600. He was called from the player on the button as well as Paul Magriel from the big blind. The flop came {3-Diamonds}{8-Clubs}{2-Spades} and Magriel checked. Flitz fired out 3,000 which was called by the button, while Magriel mucked his cards. The turn came the {4-Clubs} and the action went check-check. When the {J-Hearts} rivered, Flitz moved out two large stacks of chips. His opponent folded his {10-Hearts}{10-Clubs} face up quite quickly, causing Flitz to win a pot and climb to 40,000.

Tags: Justin FlitzPaul Magriel

Spades Still an Issue

Level 10 : 500/1,000, 0 ante

Back in Event #8: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em, PokerNews reported an issue with the decks in use. Jon Turner had spotted a marked card in that event while at the final table and upon review, all of the decks that were checked had a mark on the {4-Spades}. You can read about the incident here and here.

The tournament staff moved the players to a standard table in the Amazon Room rather than on the feature table. The lighting was a bit less and the "marked" cards were unable to be found once the players relocated to the new table. Now there seems to be another incident in this event.

On the table with Steve O'Dwyer, Ali Eslami, Matt Hawrilenko and Noah Schwartz, the players brought some markings on cards to the attention to the floor staff. The players complained in order to get a new setup for the table, but is this issue really squashed? Here are some tweets from some of the players at that table.

Ali "@Indigoae" Eslami: #WSOP cards are marked! There's a minor printing error on the BACK of small spades. Do those cards matter in the NL 2-7 main on now?

Steve "@steveodwyer" O'Dwyer: .@WSOPTD it is insane that the @wsop has not replaced the decks. when I sit in the 1 or 9 at almost any table I can see the marked spades.

@WSOPTD I first noticed it in the 5k nl and called the floor but they dismissed my concerns and I forgot about it until the 1k nl ft

@WSOPtd I'm now in the 9 seat in the plhe and am clearly able to identify the 2-5s when they are at the center of the tbl under the light...

@WSOPtd ...and I've been able to point them out when they are face down in front of me. if this isn't fixed by the morning @wsop is pathetic

Todd Terry and Jon Aguiar played in this event earlier, but have since busted. Still, they voiced their opinions on Twitter as well.

Todd "@toddbterry" Terry: After reading @steveodwyer re being able to identify marked cards, I join him in calling for @WSOP to bring in new decks immediately @WSOPTD

Jon "@JonAguiar" Aguiar: follow @steveodwyer for some scary info about how many of the WSOP decks are marked due to a printing error, 2s-5s easily visible face down

WSOP Tournament Director Jack Effel repsonded on Twitter shortly after.

Jack "@WSOPTD" Effel: Dennis just gave you guys three pulls to draw one of the defective cards, & nobody could find them.

Will this be a reoccurring issue here at the 2011 World Series of Poker? Or will the WSOP swap out the entire thousands of decks of cards for new ones? Only time will tell. One thing is for certain, there's plenty of money on the line that could warrant all precautionary measures to be taken.

Tags: Ali EslamiJon AguiarMatt HawrilenkoNoah SchwartzSteve O'DwyerTodd Terry

Level: 10

Blinds: 500/1,000

Ante: 0

Updated Chip Counts

Player Chips Progress
Christian Harder us
Christian Harder
55,100 42,100
John Dolan us
John Dolan
46,000 -11,500
Davidi Kitai be
Davidi Kitai
WSOP 3X Winner
Winamax
45,000
Ali Eslami us
Ali Eslami
WSOP 1X Winner
44,500 2,500
Alessio Isaia it
Alessio Isaia
43,900 -12,100
Ronald Lee us
Ronald Lee
42,400
40,000 33,000
38,000 -6,000
35,600 7,600
34,000 -1,000
34,000 -3,500
James Dempsey gb
James Dempsey
WSOP 1X Winner
31,000 16,000
Dan Heimiller us
Dan Heimiller
WSOP 2X Winner
30,500 14,500
30,000 3,000
James Carroll us
James Carroll
28,500 5,500
Jeff Hakim lb
Jeff Hakim
27,100 8,100
Allen Kessler us
Allen Kessler
23,500 -1,000
21,500 -6,500
Paul Magriel
Paul Magriel
20,600 3,100
20,000 -3,000
20,000 -8,000
19,000 2,000
Hoyt Corkins us
Hoyt Corkins
WSOP 2X Winner
13,800 1,300
11,000
Ted Lawson us
Ted Lawson
WSOP 1X Winner
10,400 -5,600

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