The first day of combined field action in the World Series of Poker $10,000 buy-in NLHE Main Event has concluded with just half the starting field of 2,460 (made up of the survivors of the three starting flights of the competition) surviving.
1,131 players now move on to the next day’s action, led by California player Shawn Daniels (32) on 533,500 chips, whose closest rivals are Virginia’s Eric Liebeler (532,000) and Spanish pro Samuel Bernabeu, on 524,000.
The 12 hours of action saw a number of big names in the game head for the exit, including French pro Antoine Saout, who has been a main event finalist on two previous occasions, Andre Akkari, Michael Addamo, former main event champ Joe Hachem, Erik Seidel, Gaelle Bauman, Perry Friedman, Faraz Jaka, Justin Bonomo, Jeff Madsen and sadly the popular UK grandad and previous main event finalist John Hesp, whose brightly coloured clothing, panama hat and sunny personality at the table will be missed.
Despite the list of top exits, many star players remain in contention, such as Barny Boatman, Alex Foxen, Chris Klodnicki, Ben Yu, Darren Elias, David Bach, Marvin Rettenmaier, Juha Helppi, Allen Cunningham, Pierre Neuville, and Kristen Bicknell.
They are vying for the main prize, which this year will be around $8.8 million from a prize pool of $74,015,600 – the largest Main Event pool in 12 years. If that turns out to be beyond their reach, they will be shooting or the million dollar take-homes that a seat at the final table will reward. And if that fails, they will hope to be among the 1,182 who will cash a minimum of $15,000 in this prestigious event.