Traniello Thrives on Day One of the $3K Limit Hold'em Event
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
| Year | Event | Entrants | Winner | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Event #10 ($2,000) | 569 | Siagzar (Reza) Payvar | $303,610 |
| “ | Event #17 ($2,500) | 373 | Quinn Do | $265,975 |
| “ | Event #36 ($3,000) | 406 | Todd Witteles | $347,385 |
| 2006 | Event #23 ($3,000) | 341 | Ian Johns | $291,755 |
| “ | Event #7 ($3,000) | 415 | Bill Chen | $343,618 |
| 2007 | Event #34 ($3,000) | 296 | Alexander Borteh | $225,483 |
| “ | Event #43 ($2,000) | 472 | Safi Ahmad | $217,329 |
| 2008 | Event #20 ($2,000) | 479 | Daniel Negreanu | $204,863 |
| 2009 | Event #38 ($2,000) | 446 | Marc Naalden | $190,770 |
| 2010 | Event #18 ($2,000) | 476 | Eric Buchman | $203,607 |
| 2011 | Event #14 ($3,000) | 337 | ??? | $220,817 |
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!