The $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship is known for generating one of the toughest fields in the WSOP, and this year’s version was no exception. Some truly great players endeavored to take home the $378,642 first place prize, including Tom Dwan, Eugene Katchalov, Phil Hellmuth, Jason Mercier, and Johnny Chan.
One of the most notable pros to not make the money was Daniel Negreanu. Negreanu has a reputation for being a friendly, easy going guy, so everyone was shocked by couple of his outbursts on Day 2 of the tournament.
Negreanu started Day 2 of the event as chip leader, so it is understandable that he got increasingly frustrated when his stack got lower and lower as the day went on. When there were just 27 players left, he finally lost control in a hand with Steve Landfish.
In the hand, Negreanu raised on the button and called a 3-bet from Landfish. The board came down Q224T and Negreanu called a bet on every street. When Landfish flipped QTs at showdown, Negreanu lost it. His chair fell to the ground as he jumped up in frustration, and he smashed his headphones on the floor. Pieces flew across the floor and the room got very silent, but Negreanu merely returned to his chair without a word and play continued.
The frustration for Negreanu was not over yet, however. With his stack quite short, he got his money all-in with AQ on a QJJ flop, and Tam Hang called with T9s. Negreanu thought he was good when the turn delivered a J, but Hang had a straight flush draw. Sure enough, the one outer fell on the river, and Negreanu was left to curse his terrible luck. He kicked the table as he jumped out of his chair, and after voicing his utter disbelief, left the room.
That’s enough about the busted PokerStars pro, however. Let’s talk about the final table of this event which was, expectedly, filled with some incredible players.
Nick Schulman was the first man eliminated at the final table, winning $35,519 for his efforts. Schulman has over $4 million in live career winnings, and he holds the record as the youngest person to ever win a WPT event.
Online cash game phenom Isaac Haxton was eliminated in 7th place for $55,908. Aside from his success online, he also has some huge scores on his live tournament resume. Such scores include winning $1,168,565 in the $40,000 40th Anniversary event at the 2009 WSOP and $861,789 in the PCA back in 2007.
Justin Smith, another online poker sensation, finished in 6th place for $71,897. While he, too, has had some significant success in tournaments, his claim to fame is nosebleed cash games. The Full Tilt Poker pro has been seen playing stakes as high as $4,000/$8,000.
Probably the most well known player at the final table was Barry Greenstein, a Team PokerStars pro that has won 3 WSOP bracelets in his career. His live tournament winnings are over $7 million and he is famous for his book, Ace on the River. He was eliminated in third place and won $169,512 for his efforts.
Matthew Gallin ended up heads-up with Daniel Idema, but the match did not last long as Idema started out with a huge chip lead and finished his opponent off in just five hands. Gallin busted just short of a bracelet, but he still left with $233,944 which is by far the largest cash of his career.
Daniel Idema is the third Canadian to win a WSOP bracelet this year. Hailing from Vancouver, the 26-year old was extremely happy to win his first bracelet. “It’s a tremendous honor,” he said. “A lot of great players have gold bracelets and it’s such an honor to be part of the world.”
To make his win even more impressive, he actually placed runner-up in the very same event last year! He made no mistake the second time around and received $378,642 for the victory. Congratulations to Idema and everyone else that cashed the event!
1 – Daniel Idema – $378,642
2 – Matthew Gallin – $233,944
3 – Barry Greenstein – $169,512
4 – Steve Landfish – $125,120
5 – Domenico Denotaristefani – $94,029
6 – Justin Smith – $71,897
7 – Isaac Haxton – $55,908
8 – Richard Brodie – $44,207
9 – Nick Schulman – $35,519