PLH Championship Day 1: 120 Players Hit the Rail; Levi Chip Leader with 137,000
The $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em Championship kicked off Day 1 with eight levels of action-packed play as 249 players entered for their shot at the first $10K championship of the year. While that number was down slightly from last year’s 268 entrants, the quality of the field was not diminished in the least. In fact, many of the event’s former champs were in attendance including Nenad Medic (2008- $794,112), Allen Cunningham (2007- $487,287), and last year’s winner, Hungarian Valdemar Kwaysser (2010- $617,214). When the sun set on Day 1 approximately 129 players remained.
As many know, Pot-Limit Hold’em is extremely popular with the European contingent of players. That fact was evidenced by the players who had traveled from around the world to enter the event. Among them were PokerStars Team Pro UK members JP Kelly, James Akenhead, and Liv Boeree; and European superstars Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Vladimir Schemelev, Maxim Lykov, and Praz Bansi. Although, about half of those players would be eliminated during the day.
Obviously Europeans weren’t the only players in action. Some big names who played and even survived the day include Erik Seidel, David “Bakes” Baker, Dwyte Pilgrim, Erick Lindgren, Jennifer Tilly, Phil Laak, Hoyt Corkins, and Pat Pezzin. Even more impressive, former champs Cunningham, Medic, and Kwaysser all survived to Day 2.
However, all of those players are trailing those at the top of the chip counts: Binh Nguyen (159,000), Sunny Chattha (142,000), Dan Fleyshman (133,700), James Dempsey (132,300), Darren Kramer (125,800), McLean Karr (125,500), Martins Adeniya (124,800), Owen Crowe (123,500), Steve O'Dwyer (122,200), Brandon Adams (114,000), Josh Arieh (113,000), Sam Stein (111,000), Matt Marafioti (110,700), and Justin Bonomo (109,800).
Not all the big-name pros were as lucky as Levi. Huck Seed, David “Devilfish” Ulliott, Tom Marchese, Antonio Esfandiari, Daniel Alaei, Frank Kassela, Scott Seiver, John Racener, and Michael Mizrachi were among those eliminated as the day wore on. In addition, PokerStars Team Pro members Vanessa Selbst, Alexandre Gomes, Jonathan Duhamel, Ville Wahlbeck, Vanessa Rousso, Lex Veldhuis, and Leo Fernandez all failed to make it through to Day 2.
Tomorrow, the remaining 129 players will return to compete for their share of a $2,340,600 prizepool, which will be distributed among the top 27 players with first place receiving $573,456. Here is a look at the payouts:
1st- $573,456
2nd- $354,460
3rd- $264,651
4th- $198,927
5th- $150,453
6th- $114,525
7th- $87,702
8th- $67,596
9th- $52,406
10th thru 12th- $40,890
13th thru 15th- $31,183
16th thru 18th- $25,348
19th thru 27th- $20,129
The $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em Championship will resume tomorrow at 3 PM local time with the start of Day 2 as the remaining field marches toward the final table. Join us then for all the action, eliminations, and excitement from the Amazon Room.