Three Rounds in the Books; 32 Return for Day 2
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It was an action packed day here in the Amazon room of the Rio as 162 players came out to participate in Event #16: $10,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em. Three full rounds of play were completed which leaves only 32 players returning for Day 2 where the top 16 will cash and continue on their path toward the coveted WSOP bracelet and the $331,190 in first-place prize money.
After three long rounds of play, the returning field is stack with some of the biggest names in poker. Just a few of the returning players include Jason Mercier, Phil Hellmuth, Melanie Weisner, Sam Trickett, Michael Mizrachi, Ali Eslami, AP Phahurat, Randy Lew, and Ben Sulsky.
The day began with 34 players participating in round one while 128 players received a bye to the second round. The players who were eliminated in this first round received $5,000, or half of their buy in back. Despite being only 34 players, this field was fairly stacked. Some of the biggest names in poker participated in round one and were unable to find the first victory necessary to continue their quest to glory. The likes of Phil Ivey, Vanessa Selbst, Tom Marchese, Jonathan Duhamel, Dario Minieri, and Ben Lamb all found themselves eliminated from play in the first round.
Once the first round saw its conclusion, there came a bit of controversy over the draw of the bracket. This led to the tournament being put on half for about thirty minutes in order to create a new re-draw for the players. Once this round kicked off, 128 of pokers elite squared off in head to head competition against one another. As the field gets cut in half every round, it is expected to see many of the game's great fall and this round was no exception. Daniel Negreanu, Scott Seiver, Faraz Jaka, Antonio Esfandiari, and Andrew Lichtenberger are just a small sample size of those to hit the rail.
The final round of the night began with 64 players and would not come to a close until 32 remained. During this round, Martin Jacobson, Byron Kaverman, Chino Rheem, Ludovic Lacay, and many others fell victim to their opponents. Fireworks also occurred during the match between Paul Volpe and Phil Galfond that saw the latter moving on to the round of 32. The two got it all in for Volpe's tournament life on a 
board. Volpe held 
and was in the lead over Galfond's 
. Despite having the clubs covered, Volpe fell behind when the 
paired Galfond on the turn and the 
on the river sealed the deal for Volpe's elimination.
Round of 32
| Player | vs. | Player |
|---|---|---|
| AP Phahurat | - | Melanie Weisner |
| Fabrizio Gonzalez | - | Randy Lew |
| Phil Galfond | - | John Parker |
| Ben Sulsky | - | Michael Mizrachi |
| Micah Raskin | - | Craig Bergeron |
| Ali Eslami | - | Don Nguyen |
| Bryan Pellegrino | - | Markus Gonsalves |
| Keith Block | - | Sean Winter |
| Justin Smith | - | Alexander Venovski |
| Ankush Mandavia | - | Mark Radoja |
| Thiago Nishijima | - | Phil Hellmuth |
| Marc-Andre Ladouceur | - | Sam Trickett |
| Russel Rosenblum | - | Joel Micka |
| Sam Stein | - | Davidi Kitai |
| Warwick Mirzikinian | - | Keven Stammen |
| Justin Bonomo | - | Jason Mercier |
Players will return to the Amazon room at 2:00 PM PST on Saturday to play their final match before hitting the money. They will play down to the final 4 players on Day 2. Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews for all of the latest updates from this exciting and unique poker event!