Marco Johnson Leads, Neymar Appearance Highlights Day 1 of Event #26: $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship
As the clock struck 2 a.m. local time, a full 10 levels were completed on Day 1 of Event #26: $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship at the World Series of Poker at Bally's and Paris Las Vegas. A total of 74 entries were recorded throughout the day with only 29 players bagging chips and moving on to Day 2 tomorrow.
Leading the pack is mixed games specialist Marco Johnson who is in search of his third career WSOP gold bracelet. Johnson joined the field in the latter stages of the day but managed to spin up a stack of 354,000 chips. Johnson rounded out his day by eliminating recent bracelet winner Michael Moncek, defeating him in back-to-back hands in the last level of the night.
Event #26: $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chips | Big Bets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marco Johnson | United States | 354,000 | 44 |
| 2 | Amir Shayesteh | United States | 319,000 | 40 |
| 3 | Joey Couden | United States | 255,000 | 32 |
| 4 | Jesse Lonis | United States | 245,000 | 31 |
| 5 | Kyle Dilschenider | United States | 244,000 | 31 |
| 6 | Matthew Rightnour | United States | 237,000 | 30 |
| 7 | Robert Campbell | Australia | 224,000 | 28 |
| 8 | Nick Pupillo | United States | 213,000 | 27 |
| 9 | David Lieberman | United States | 189,000 | 24 |
| 10 | Yuval Bronshtein | Israel | 188,000 | 24 |
Not far behind Johnson is Amir Shayesteh who made a late surge for the top of the leaderboard, finishing with 319,000 chips. Jesse Lonis (245,000), Kyle Dilschneider (244,000), and Matthew Rightnour (237,000) will be some other big stacks to keep an eye on heading to Day 2. Anthony Zinno, Robert Campbell, and Brian Rast will also be in the hunt looking for some more jewelry.
The day started rather slowly, delayed by 10 minutes, until at least four players were seated at the table. However, the number of entries grew over the first few levels of the day, attracting some of the biggest names in the poker world. Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, and Erik Seidel can be added to that list, but unfortunately none of them made it through to Day 2.
However, they weren't the biggest spotlight of the day and in fact, not many even had their eyes on them at all. It was Brazilian pro-footballer Neymar Jr who attracted the largest rail, and many fans couldn't wait to get a glimpse. Accompanied by his own security and friends, Neymar joined the field in the second level of the day and wasted little time getting in on the action.
On his first hand of the day, Neymar cracked aces by making two pair which kicked off his rollercoaster of a day. Neymar worked his stack all the way up to around 90,000 at one point and fell down to as low as 15,000; he played a lot of hands throughout his time at the felt today. However, it wasn't meant to be for the soccer phenom as his day ended during Level 6.
Some other notables to hit the rail throughout the day include Scott Seiver, Benny Glaser, Nate Silver, Andre Akkari, and defending champion John Monnette.
Late registration remains open until the start of play on Day 2, which begins at 2 p.m. local time for any of those that haven't taken their shot yet. The blinds resume on Level 11 at 2,000/4,000 and limits of 4,000/8,000. Any new entries will receive a starting stack of 60,000 chips.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be back on the tournament floor to bring you all of the live updates throughout the event.