The biggest limit hold'em tournament of the year kicked off on Thursday and 122 players signed up for what will be a true test of skill, patience and a bit of luck. After the day, Samuel Golbuff led the pack with 124,900 in chips. He was trailed closely by Kenny Shei with 118,400, David Chiu with 109,200, and Antonio Esfandiari with 99,200.
The day started off slow, but we immediately spotted a great table with the likes of Melissa Burr, Mark Newhouse, and Joep van den Bijgaart. Later, this table added Jeff Lisandro, Dan Shak, Mike Watson, and Marco Johnson to create a start-studded affair on Day 1. From the aforementioned bunch, the field only lost Johnson and Newhouse, who could not get anything going in the later levels.
Others who busted included Jameson Painter, Brock Parker, Rep Porter, and Todd Witteles. Barry Greenstein and Andrey Zaichenko were also among the first to hit the rail, while Eli Elezra, Paul Volpe, and John Hennigan all entered late and survived the day.
Players will attempt to maneuver themselves into the money on Day 2 and ultimately the final table. In total, 18 places will get paid, with the min-cash being $16,273. The winner of this event will ultimately walk away with $309,909.
Play will resume at 2 p.m. local time and we will be right there with you to bring all your live coverage of the $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship.
Yakov Hirsch has been talking more than the entire Monster Stack field combined, and Antonio Esfandiari's happy to interact with him.
Hirsch and Esfandiari, who's a known prop bettor on all sorts of random stuff, have been going back and forth on lots of different bets, and just now the following was going on.
Hirsch said that he would set a line on his own age and Esfandiari would have to guess if it was either over or under. The bet would be for $2,000 and after two minutes Hirsch set the line at 47.
Esfandiari pondered, and pondered, and eventually he suggested to up the bet.
"I almost want to bet more," Esfandiari smiled, and asked Hirsch if he wanted to bet more.
"How about $5k," Hirsch said.
Esfandiari paused, and he clearly wasn't ready to bet that much on this single prop bet.
The two settled on $3,000 and Esfandiari guessed the under, after which Hirsch yelled, "Wrong!"
Hirsch grabbed his ID and showed that he was indeed 48 and collected the money. Esfandiari seemed very sure of himself and our best guess is that these two gentleman will wager a lot more money the later it gets.
In a Limit Hold'em tournament it's not very common to lose players in the first couple of levels, but a very unlucky Jameson Painter was just knocked out.
A hand we just watched cost Painter almost all of his chips, and we picked up the action when the board read . The player in the small blind bet, Vincent Gironda raised from the big blind and Painter called from the button. The small blind called as well and the turn brought the .
The small blind checked to Gironda who bet, Painter raised and the small blind folded. Girond put in a three-bet and Painter called. The river was the and Gironda bet again, Painter raised and Gironda three-bet.
Painter made the call and Gironda tabled . Painter shook his head and flashed before throwing his rivered set into the muck. A few hands later Painter, who was down to 400 chips after this hand, was knocked out.
[user20283]
Daniel Idema, the last winner of the $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship
Arguably the highest pace game in the world sees its $10,000 Championship event kick off today! The $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship always draws out the cream of the crop and this year it won't be any different.
Last year this event had a $5,000 buy in and was won by Michael Moore who beat a field of $211,743. In total 170 players signed up and Gabriel Nassif, Ronnie Bardah and Todd Witteles were among the finalists.
In 2012 Benjamin Scholl won this event for $207,760, as he beat a field of 166 after making his way through a very tough final table with Matt Glantz, Jesse Martin and Jeff Shulman.
The last time this event had a $10,000 buy in was in 2011, when Daniel Idema took it down for $378,642. Idema, one of the best Limit Hold'em players on a year-to-year basis, beat a final table with the likes of Barry Greenstein, Justin Smith and Isaac Haxton to once again show that this game certainly draws an extremely tough crowd.
The next three days will be filled with raising, three-betting, calling, checking and folding, all of which at a very high pace. PokerNews.com will be right there with you as we bring you all the updates of yet another Championship event at the 2014 World Series of Poker.
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. The player in the small blind bet, Vincent Gironda raised from the big blind and Painter called from the button. The small blind called as well and the turn brought the 
.
and Gironda bet again, Painter raised and Gironda three-bet.
. Painter shook his head and flashed 
before throwing his rivered set into the muck. A few hands later Painter, who was down to 400 chips after this hand, was knocked out.
