Marcos De Campos opened 55,000 in the hijack and Cristian Nagaki defended the big blind.
The dealer fanned a flop of J♥6♠3♦, and Nagaki check-raised a continuation bet of 50,000 to 140,000. De Campos responded with another raise, this time to 325,000. That was enough to earn the pot as Nagaki pitched his cards into the muck.
With ten minutes remaining on the clock, the tournament director has announced the final six hands of the night before players begin to bag and tag for Day 2 on December 16.
Both Jean-Noel Thorel and Santhosh Suvarna were missing in their seats on Table 102 and Juan Pardo appeared to be the beneficiary of their chips. Moments later, Pardo raised to 55,000 on the button and Mustafa Hadzibegovic moved all in for 290,000 in the small blind. Pardo asked for a count and then called.
Mustafa Hadzibegovic: A♥Q♠
Juan Pardo: 2♥2♣
It was a coin flip and the flop of K♦8♠8♦ left Pardo in the lead with his pair of deuces. The 4♠ and 7♥ runout brought no help for Hadzibegovic who was also eliminated late in the day.
Day 1a has drawn to an end with 157 players advancing to Day 2 on December 16. A full recap of the day's action along with the chip counts will be posted shortly.
A week into World Series of Poker (WSOP) Paradise and the first-ever Event #9: $25,000 WSOP Super Main Event is finally upon us. The long-anticipated $50 million guaranteed Super Main Event kicked off today and drew 459 runners looking for a piece of the biggest guarantee in poker history.
Spain's Juan Pardo bagged the chip lead in the first starting flight ahead of big stacks including Jonathan Jaffee, Team Lucky's Shaun Deeb and one of the newest high-stakes crushers in Kayhan Mokri.
Shaun Deeb
Also among the 155 players who bagged on Day 1a include Poker Hall of Famer Daniel Negreanu, Isaac Haxton, Maria Ho, Mustapha Kanit, Dan Shak, Rania Nasreddine and Aleksejs Ponakovs.
Super Millions Main Event Day 1a Top 10 Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chips
Big Blinds
1
Juan Pardo
Spain
4,585,000
183
2
Jonathan Jaffe
United States
4,390,000
176
3
Shaun Deeb
United States
3,960,000
158
4
Kayhan Mokri
Norway
3,805,000
152
5
Igor Picone
Belgium
3,520,000
141
6
Keith Lehr
United States
3,435,000
137
7
Chris Brewer
United States
3,345,000
134
8
Matthias Eibinger
Austria
3,285,000
131
9
Stefan Fabian
United Kingdom
3,245,000
130
10
Frank Brannan
United States
3,165,000
127
Super Main Event Action
Day 1a kicked off with an iconic "Shuffle up and deal" announcement from WSOP's Ty Stewart and tennis legend Boris Becker. After that, chips flew as some players built stacks and others were sent to the rail. Some early eliminations included Ana Marquez, Karolis Sereika and Sosia Jiang, who is fresh off an eighth-place finish in the Triton Million but ran worse in this event as she flopped middle against the top set of Yoav Schverd.
Players who built their stacks included high-stakes cash star Alan Keating, who could be seen sporting a blue watch retailing at over $300,000 and France's Jean-Noel Thorel, who lit up the table both literally and figuratively with his warm presence and bright LED tube light displayed on the table.
Alan Keating's watch
The field also included Kristen Foxen, who missed a few hands as she watched her husband Alex Foxen win his third bracelet in the Triton Main Event. It's been a good week to be a Foxen as Kristen was formally inducted into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame yesterday and Alex finished sixth in the Triton million for $2,795,000 three days ago.
Just weeks ago, Kristen Foxen bragged to PokerNews that she had more bracelets than her husband. Alex Foxen is one bracelet closer to catching the five-time bracelet winner.
Alex Foxen holds his wife, Kristen, after she was inducted into the WiPHoF.
There are still three more flights to take place in the Super Millions Main Event before Day 2 on Dec. 16. Tomorrow's Day 1b and succeeding starting flights will follow a similar structure with 60-minute levels and starting stacks of 500,000.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team will be back on-site tomorrow for continued coverage of the first-ever Super Millions Main Event here at Atlantis in the Bahamas. Check out the live reporting portal for coverage of other tournaments in the meantime.
