Surprise, Surprise; Selbst Leads After Day 1

Day 1 is all historical now as we're through eight levels of the first-ever World Series of Poker Circuit Northeast Regional Championship. The 136 hanging on the board under "Entries" looks a bit anemic at first glance, but it's really rather respectable all things considered. The high buy-in and the proximity to the holidays have tightened the reigns a bit, while the stacked field that did turn up is a fine representation of what the WSOP brand stands for. Even with just 136 players to choose from, we're a near-lock to have a crew of recognizable faces populating our final table come Wednesday.

Anyways, we're getting ahead of ourselves a bit as we're still only about a quarter of the way there. At the first post, it's Vanessa Selbst with the big stack, and her bag is brimming with 126,375 technicolor chips. It's less than a surprise to see a big number next to her name as she tries to put a big exclamation point on a fantastic year. The lead was hotly contested down the stretch, but Sorel Mizzi and Andy Frankeberger both took sizable hits to their chip stacks during the final orbit or so.

Oh the notables abound! Jordan Morgan is no stranger to success in this city, and he's poised to make another run at a trophy here this week as he too sits near the top of the score sheet after one day of play. It's almost hard to pick a selection of notable survivors (as nearly everyone that has made it to Day 2 qualifies), so we'll do so at relative random. Well, starting with the bracelet winners. Dan "djk123" Kelly, Leo Wolpert, David Baker, Dan Heimiller, John Cernuto, Brock Parker, Chris Bell, Scott Fischman, T.J. Cloutier -- we might even be missing a few, but all of those gents will be back with us tomorrow. Also in the mix are a ton of younger pros like Jon Aguiar, Matt Affleck, Jim Collopy, Phil Collins, Christian Harder, Isaac Baron, Matt Stout, and Josh Brikis. To name just a few.

All those and a whole lot more -- 93 players in total -- will be back here tomorrow at high noon to play down closer to our eventual final table. We'll be back here, too, and we hope you'll join us for some Day 2 festivities.

Until then, all that's left is goodnight.

Tags: Vanessa Selbst