Barry Hutter Leads After Day 1
Once registration was closed at the start of Level 6, Event #29: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em here at the 2014 World Series of Poker drew a total of 1,165 entries. This is considerably down compared to the 1,736 from last year, however, back then the tournament took place towards the end of the Series just before the Main Event.
At the end of Day 1, 209 players bagged chips and the top 117 spots will get paid at least $5,035. The player best positioned in the quest towards claiming the first-place-prize of $536,768 was Barry Hutter, who has two final tables on the World Poker Tour and a sixth-place in a $1,000 WSOP event in 2013 to his name. Hutter previously cashed in Event #2: $25,000 Mixed-Max No-Limit Hold'em two weeks ago and accumulated 150,500 in chips here on Day 1.
Notable names that made it through with big stacks included Grayson Ramage (138,800), 2013 bracelet winner Justin Oliver (115,100), Rep Porter (107,900), Isaac Baron (103,100), and Ben Warrington (86,700).
Roberto Romanello (73,100) is seeking yet another attempt to join the triple crown club, and other notable names to get through to Day 2 included Ravi Raghavan (54,100), Tristan Wade (52,900), Will "The Thrill" Failla (51,300), Matt Affleck (45,900), former November Niner David Benefield (45,100), Amanda Musumeci (33,000), Sam Cohen (26,300), and Jamie Kerstetter (22,200).
Among those that joined the rail before the end of Level 10 were Phil Hellmuth, Faraz Jaka, Jennifer Tilly, defending Main Event champion Ryan Riess, Joseph Cheong, Ana Marquez, 2014 bracelet winners Vanessa Selbst and Dominik Nitsche, David Williams, and Sean Jazayeri.
Jazayeri jumped into the lead very early on, but eventually lost a big flip against Jorge Walker and could not spin up the remaining stack.
The PokerNews team will be back at 1 p.m. Las Vegas time when the action resumes in Level 11 at blinds 500/1,000 with an ante of 100 and the money will be reached within the first couple hours of the day.