Cheong, Foxen & Kade Thrive on Day 1a of Wynn Millions; Negreanu Struggles

Chad Holloway PR & Media Manager

Jun 26, 2021 2 min read Last updated Jul 01, 2021

Wynn Millions Day 1a Top 10 Chip Counts
Negreanu, Seidel, Konnikova Among Eliminations

On Friday, the highly-anticipated $10,000 buy-in, $10,000,000 GTD Wynn Millions got underway. The first of three starting flights attracted 263 runners, but after 10 levels of play, 92 remained with Peter Braglia and his stack of 321,500 leading the way. Not far behind were Cliff Josephy (317,000) and Joseph Cheong (301,500).

Others to bag big stacks were Cliff Josephy (317,000), Alex Foxen (295,500), and Jerald Saeman (280,000), who round out the top five. They were joined by Jason Koon (236,500), Vanessa Kade (168,000), Dan Smith (160,000), Ryan Riess (121,500), Chance Kornuth (113,500), Jason Somerville (105,500), Tony Dunst (90,500), David Peters (81,000), and Nick Schulman (74,000).

Wynn Millions Day 1a Top 10 Chip Counts

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Count
1	Peter Braglia	United States	321,500
2	Cliff Josephy	United States	317,000
3	Joseph Cheong	United States	301,500
4	Alex Foxen	United States	295,500
5	Jerald Saeman	United States	280,000
6	Aram Zobian	United States	249,500
7	Matthew Ploof	United States	238,000
8	Jason Koon	United States	236,500
9	Dylan Smith	United States	232,500
10	James Calderaro	United States	211,500

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Negreanu, Seidel, Konnikova Among Eliminations

Of course, not everyone was fortunate enough to advance to Day 2. Among those to fall were Andrew Lichtenberger, Brock Wilson, Jared Bleznick, Chris Brewer, Frank Funaro, Erik Seidel, Maria Konnikova, Shaun Deeb, Kristen Bicknell, 2020 WSOP champ Damian Salas, and GGPoker Ambassador Daniel Negreanu.

Negreanu actually busted the tournament twice, which was somewhat of a surprise given he doubled in Level 1 after making quad queens. However, his hot start cooled as he busted his first bullet in Level 2 in a particularly brutal hand.

There was four-way action that saw a J♦10♦5♠ flop and Nitis Udornpim continued for 1,500. Negreanu raised to 5,500 and all three opponents called bringing the A♠ turn.

Action was checked to the player in middle position who fired out 1,600 and Negreanu raised all in. Action folded to Udornpim who came over the top and isolated.

Nitis Udornpim: AxJx
Daniel Negreanu: 5x5x

Negreanu was ahead after flopping a set of fives but a Jx completed the board on the river, giving Udornpim a better full house and sent Negreanu to the rebuy desk.

The GGPoker ambassador's second bullet didn’t go any better and he exhausted his single re-entry per flight option two levels later.

The good news is that he and others have a chance to try again as there are still two more starting flights to go with Days 1b and 1c at Noon local time on Saturday and Sunday respectively. PokerNews will be on-site to capture all the action throughout the six-day long tournament, so be sure to tune in all weekend long into next week.