Kurtzman Bags Day 1 Lead in Event #16: $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship
Day 1 of Event #16: $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship has come to a close in the wee hours of the night at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino. A total of 78 players made their way into the tournament throughout the day but only 35 of them will be returning for Day 2. Eric Kurtzman finished the day on top of the leaderboard by accumulating a whopping 466,000 chips through 10 levels of play.
Kurtzman, a Las Vegas resident, purely sticks to playing tournaments once per year when the World Series of Poker rolls into town. "The Donkey" as he's known by, often specializes in mixed games but has some results in hold'em as well. Kurtzman lived up to his hype in the opening levels of the night when he played a big pot with deuce-three of diamonds from under the gun. Kurtzman managed to turn a straight flush and got paid off on the river.
Some other big stacks moving through the day include Tony Wasaya with 314,000, the only other player with over 300,000 chips. Yuri Dzivielevski finished the day with 270,000 chips, while Casey Mccarrel (232,000) and Christopher Chues (201,000) round out the top five stacks.
It was a slow start to the day with only 24 players taking their seat on the opening shuffle, one of which included Daniel Negreanu. Although Negreanu came out on top of a $100 prop bet with Terrence Chan, Negreanu was unable to spin up a stack and was eliminated midway through the day. Chan lasted a while longer but still ran out of chips in the last level of the night.
Some other notables to bag chips after Day 1 include Anthony Zinno (159,000), Jason Somerville (125,000), Brian Rast (108,000), Mike Matusow (93,000), and Benny Glaser (49,000). Unfortunately for some others like Robert Mizrachi, Eli Elezra, Scott Seiver, and David Benyamine, they will not be in the hunt for a bracelet in this event.
The action will pick back up at 2 p.m. local time inside the Amazon Room. Late registration will remain open until the start of play so there is still time for some late stragglers to take their shot. The blinds will resume at 2,000/4,000 with the limits at 4,000/8,000. The schedule is to play down to the final five players who will then battle it out for the WSOP gold bracelet on Day 3.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be back on the floor to bring you all of the live updates throughout the tournament.