Well, we wish we'd seen more of this hand play out. John Racener wasted no time getting himself all in this afternoon.
When we walked up to the table, the turn was already out and the board showed . There was at least 28,000 in the pot already, and it was a heads-up pot between Racener on the button and Davidi Kitai in the big blind. Racener got his last ~23,000 into the pot there on fourth street, and Kitai spent ages in the tank before giving it up.
Racener is up over 50,000 already, and we can't imagine anyone in the room has that topped so far.
Roberto Romanello has rolled into town. This is his third event of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) and he couldn't be in a tougher spot. He currently occupies the 3 seat at Table 13 where his opponents include Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (1), Scott Clements (2), Eugene Katchalov (3), Robert Mizrachi (7) and Matt Giannetti (8). In addition to the tough opposition, the man from Tom Jones country has also dropped a sizeable portion of his starting stack. We caught up with the action on the turn and Romanello was battling it out with Mizrachi.
Board:
Romanello check-called a 2,600 Mizrachi bet and the pair saw the on the river. Romanello checked once more and Mizrachi made a 10,000 bet. Romanello made the call and Mizrachi showed for the straight; Romanello mucked his hand.
A poker tournament with a $10,000 buy-in attracts a specific kind of clientele. The type of clientele that can afford to slam $10,000 on a poker tournament, to be specific. Some in the room might find that a bit of a strain on their bankrolls, but that's not the case for others.
We have at least three players in the room who are prepared to invest significantly more money on this game. Cary Katz, Dan Shak, and Noah Schwartz are all big spenders at the cashier's cage, and they'll have a chance to play one of the smallest bracelet events in decades this summer. Small by field size, that is, but certainly not by price tag.
The three of them will be among the ~48 people putting up $1,000,000 apiece to take part in The Big One for One Drop later this month.
As we look up from typing, though, we see another few One Droppers have joined up late. Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier is here, as is Eugene Katchalov. Oh, and Erik Seidel, too, who really wishes they'd spread a $1,000,000 tournament during his sick 2011 big-buy-in heater.
We're up to lucky 111 players in the room so far, and some tough tables are coming together.
Table 7 is an awfully difficult place to get work done right now. There is where we find Mike McDonald (Seat 1), Kevin Saul (3), Jonathan Little (4), John Juanda (7), Erik Seidel (8), and Josh Arieh (9).
We also have two murderers' rows in the room. The first five seats at Table 3 are occupied by John Racener, Shaun Deeb, Davidi Kitai, Matt Graham, and Brock Parker in that order. And at Table 2, another fearsome fivesome: Christian Harder, Matt Stout, Jon Aguiar, Bill Chen, and Steve O'Dwyer in the first five seats, as well. Try making an early-position raise in front of that bunch.
It seems the French players like their high stakes Pot-Limit Hold'em. Right on point and ready to rock n roll at 12:00 PM were a whole host of French superstars.
Table #1 houses the pink-haired Guillaume Darcourt. Darcourt is always fun to watch as he enjoys playing in most pots at the table. Darcourt is a former World Poker Tour (WPT) Main Event winner and also has great World Series of Poker (WSOP) form. In 2010, Darcourt took 3rd spot in the $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em - Triple Chance for $223,459 and last year had an amazing run in the Main Event where he finished 35th for $242,636. He has cashed in one event so far this year.
Table #4 is the home for two French players. Adrien Allain is one the young superstars of France. He is a WPT Main Event winner and WSOPE final tablist when he finished 5th in last years €2,500 6-Max No-Limit Hold'em event, giving Phil Hellmuth a torrid time. Allain is sharing a table with the more experienced Manuel Bevand who has 4 WSOP cashes to his name.
Holding the number 1 seat at Table #5 is Ludovic Lacay. Lacay is a regular on the world poker circuit with 7 WSOP cashes to his name. Lacay has a particular fancy to WSOP $10,000 events with no fewer than 4 cashes in them including a 16th place finish in the 2009 Main Event for $500,557.
Last but not least we have High Stakes cash player David Benyamine. He is over at Table #11 to the right of Olivier Busquets. Benyamine already has one WSOP cash to his name this year placing 69th in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Re-Entry Event. Benyamine is a WSOP bracelet holder with a 1st place finish in the 2008, $10,000 Omaha Hi/Lo Split event for $535,687.
There aren't many easy tables in a small $10,000 event like this one, but Table 9 is already in the running for Table of Death this afternoon. There are just four players seated there so far, but they're four notables in the form of Doc Sands (Seat 2), Jason Somerville (6), Jeff Tims (7), and Marco Traniello (8). There's already some four-betting going on in that foursome.
Sands opened his first button to 350 with a dead small blind in the pot. Somerville made a three-bet to 800, but Sands came right back over the top and made it 1,850 total. Somerville flatted pretty quickly, then check-folded for 1,750 more on the flop.
The player counter on the clock shows 86 players registered for this event, but that number is climbing quickly. The late regs are plentiful for this one, and we've just seen at least a dozen more players stream in through the doors in the last 30 seconds.
Two of them were Jon Aguiar and Isaac Haxton, who appeared to arrive together. Aguiar was moving briskly through the room as he searched for his table. When he got within eyeshot of it, he saw it was empty.
Depending where you are in the world: good morning, afternoon and evening. Welcome to the World Series of Poker (WSOP) and Event #17 $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em.
The festivities will be kicking off at 12:00 PM where the first cards in a 10-level session will be flung to the far corners of the Brasilia Room. Event #17 is a three-day event with players beginning with 30,000 in tournament chips. Breaks will occur after every two levels and will be twenty-minutes in length. Each level consists of sixty-minutes and there will be a ninety-minute dinner break after the completion of Level 6.
This is the second Pot-Limit Hold'em event at this years WSOP. Event #5 the much smaller $1,500 buy-in event went the way of Nick Jivkov who bested a star-studded final table comprising of Daniel Negreanu, Bryan Pellegrino, Tommy Vedes and John Eames.
In 2011, the $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em WSOP bracelet was placed on the wrist of Amir Lehavot. Lehavot defeating the likes of Nicolas Levis and McLean Karr to take down the gold.
![[user66118]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
. There was at least 28,000 in the pot already, and it was a heads-up pot between Racener on the button and Davidi Kitai in the big blind. Racener got his last ~23,000 into the pot there on fourth street, and Kitai spent ages in the tank before giving it up.
on the river. Romanello checked once more and Mizrachi made a 10,000 bet. Romanello made the call and Mizrachi showed 
for the straight; Romanello mucked his hand.
