It is that happy time of the year when poker celebrities, recreational players, and amateurs are flocking to Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas to take part in the WSOP $10,000 Main Event. Day 1A of this year’s edition of the world’s most prestigious No-Limit Hold’em tournament was played Monday at the host casino and 661 survived until the end to secure a spot into Day 2.
The event features two more starting flights, the first of which will be played today starting 11 am local time.
As many as 925 entries registered for the first starting day of this year’s Main Event. As mentioned above, that day’s field included people from all around the world and of diverse experience in the thrilling world of poker.
However, it was eventually IT specialist Truyen Nguyen to bag and tag the largest stack of the night. The player had accumulated a total of 324,800 by the time all five two-hour levels scheduled for the day were concluded. UK’s Chris Fraser has also secured a passage to the next stage of the tournament, trailing closely behind Nguyen with 316,100. David McCaw rounded out top three of the chip counts chart last night with 220,400.
During Day 1A of the Main Event, Nguyen shared a table with Ben Lamb, who finished ninth in last year’s edition of the tournament. Lamb turned out to be one of the most challenging opponents for the Day 1A chip leader. The former WSOP Championship final tablist was particularly active during the final level of the day.
Lamb and Nguyen clashed on a couple of occasions during that final level of play. The first time Lamb barely escaped elimination after clashing against the overnight chip leader. Nguyen then finished off his opponent a few hands later to lock the chip lead.
Other Day 1A Notables
There were several former Main Event champions who entered the tournament on Day 1A and survived to the very end. Joe McKeehen, who topped the event in 2015, 1998 champion Scotty Nguyen, and 2005 winner Joe Hachem were some such former champs to have secured a spot into Day 2 and will be resting and devising their strategies for the next stages of the event over the next two days, while others play the 1B and 1C starting flights.
Other notables who made it to the end of the day included Erik Seidel, Gordon Vayo, and Matt Berkey, among others.
Defending champion Scott Blumstein was eliminated early into the day. The player topped a field of 7,221 entries last summer to win a first-place prize of $8.15 million. Qui Nguyen and Jerry Yang, other former Main Event champs, were also among the Day 1A entries who failed to advance into Day 2. Brian Rast, Stephen Chidwick, Felipe Ramos, and Chance Kornuth were among the other familiar faces who did not secure a spot among the Day 1A survivors.
