Day 2 of Event #54 ($1,000 No-Limit Hold'em) is Set to Start!
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Yesterday one of the greatest spectacles in all of poker took place, as nearly three thousand runners took to the Rio to compete in one of the World Series of Poker's most popular events. A total of 2,883 players plunked down a grand each for the chance to play on poker's premier stage, with thousands of amateurs rubbing elbows with the likes of Olivier Busquet, Athanasios Polychronopoulos, Victor Ramdin, Tony Dunst, Matt Stout, Randy Lew, and Bryan Micon, just to name a few.
While those pros failed to survive the onslaught of all ins and bad beats so common to Day 1s, several notable names will be returning this afternoon with a bag of chips, and a shot to earn that coveted gold bracelet. Barry Hutter emerged as the overwhelming chip leader by the end of 11 full levels of play yesterday, and his 211,000 stack gives him a wide lead over the field. Marcus Aurelius, and yes that is his real name, also took down a few huge pots throughout the day to bag and tag 157,800 by the end of the night. Other chip stacks to watch out for belong to pro Warwick Mirzikinian (111,700), last year's Main Event runner-up Jesse James Sylvia (83,000), and Nico Maag (105,700).
After the money bubble was burst late last night, the play picked up and the bustouts commenced, so expect the action to be just as intense right from the start here today. Take a look at the following video celebrating Steve Sung's recent bracelet win, and then check back with PokerNews at 1 p.m. local time to follow all of the action live from the floor of the Rio, as the field plays ten levels in hopes of reaching the final table.