Jonathan Duhamel leads stacked Day 1 of the GDAM
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There aren’t many tournaments that could lure some of the biggest names in poker away from the World Series of Poker but that is exactly what the GuangDong Ltd Asia Millions (GDAM) has managed to do.
Beginning earlier today at PokerStars LIVE at the City of Dreams in Macau, the GDAM Main Event saw 71 unique players pony up the HK$1,000,000 (Approx. US$130,000) buy-in. Each player was allowed two rebuys at any time regardless of their chip stack, and 35 unique players opted to take at least one of those rebuys, while many of them made two rebuys. In the end there were 54 total rebuys, which meant the prize pool weighed in at a massive HK$119,375,000 (US$15,403,226). That makes the GDAM Main Event the second largest tournament by prize pool outside of Las Vegas.
The top eight players will be guaranteed at least HK$6,000,000 (US$774,193) and the top six will be going home with at least US$1 million. The winner will of course pick up the grandest share of the prize pool, taking home an enormous HK$34,600,000 (US$4,464,516). The payout information can be found below.
| Place | Prize (HKD) | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $34,600,000 | $4,464,516 |
| 2 | $24,500,000 | $3,161,290 |
| 3 | $16,100,000 | $2,077,419 |
| 4 | $12,525,000 | $1,616,129 |
| 5 | $10,200,000 | $1,316,129 |
| 6 | $8,300,000 | $1,070,967 |
| 7 | $7,150,000 | $922,580 |
| 8 | $6,000,000 | $774,193 |
For some players the prize pool above means very little has they found themselves on the rail throughout Day 1 of the GDAM Main Event. Some of the players eliminated include poker superstars Erik Seidel, Mike Watson and Shaun Deeb. In the end 20 players were sent home on Day 1, meaning 51 will return for Day 2 action.
It was a brutal bust-out for Deeb as he got all his chips in holding 
on the river of 
board, meaning he had the nut flush. Unfortunately for Deeb his opponent JC Alvarado held 
, with the straight-flush sending Deeb home short of making Day 2.
Plenty of players were more fortunate than Deeb, one of those being 2010 WSOP Main Event champion Team PokerStars Pro Jonathan Duhamel as he managed to finish up as the chip leader. Duhamel had a bit of a roller coaster day, first seeing his stack fall considerably, before steadying during the second half of the day. Duhamel utilized his two full rebuys on Day 1 and bagged up 6,080,000 in chips.
Trailing just behind Duhamel on the chip leader board is PokerStars Team Online Isaac Haxton. It was a similar day at the felt for Haxton as he also utilized two full rebuys before eventually finishing up with a stack of 5,658,000. Not too far behind Haxton and Duhamel include Sorel Mizzi, Joseph Cheong, JC Alvarado and Dan Smith.
Some of the other players who survived Day 1 of the GDAM Main Event, albeit with less chips than the above include Mike McDonald, Igor Kurganov, John Juanda, Aaron Lim, Tobias Reinkemeier and Gus Hansen, along with 2012 WSOP Main Event champion Greg Merson and TeamPokerStars Pro Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier. Be sure to check out the full end-of-day chip counts and the Day 2 seating draw in the live reporting blog below.
All the Day 2 action is set to begin on tomorrow at 3.00 p.m. local time (12.00 a.m. PDT) and the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will once again be on the floor of PokerStars LIVE at the City of Dreams, bringing you all the thrills of the GDAM Main Event. Join us then poker fans!