Brian Vollick Takes the Day 1 Chip Lead; 174 Progress
Brian Vollick will lead the returning 174 players into Day 2 of Event #41: $1,500 Limit Hold'em after bagging up 71,500.
Vollick will be closely followed by WSOP ring winner Rex Clinkscales (69,900), Kurt Maier (68,200) and Jeremy Heartberg (66,200) when play gets underway at noon local time on Thursday, June 21.
A field of 596 players came together to create $804,600 prize pool, all with the aim of emulating last year's event winner Shane Buchwald.
This is one of three Limit Hold'em events that will take place during this year's series, and today ten 60-minute levels were played out as a host of notable names took their shot including bracelet winners Dutch Boyd, Andre Akkari, Mike Leah, Humberto Brenes, Phillip Hui, Michael Moore, Todd Witteles, Ryan Laplante, David 'ODB' Baker, David Bach, Chris Ferguson, Luis Calvo and 2008 WSOP Ladies Championship winner Svetlana Gromenkova.
However, of those names only Boyd (8,000), Bach (10,800) and Gromenkova (16,800) will return for Day 2.
A late entrant was six-time bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu, who won the 2004 and 2008 WSOP $2,000 Limit events. The Canadian lost a big pot in level 9 when his opponent turned a full house, and although he was able to make a small comeback, he ultimately was eliminated when Gromenkova's ace-high defeated his king-high before the end of the level.
Other familiar faces came and went as the action got underway including Marcel Luske and 2015 Main Event champion Joe McKeehen, who exited early after his ace-king was unable to beat Mike Lake's king-queen after the latter made two pair. Canadian professional Ari Engel, who boasts $5,820,708 in recorded live tournament cashes, was eliminated just before the dinner break at the end of level 6. Engel got his last bet in on the flop with pocket-nines and found he was behind to a Chip Jett's paired king. Alex Keating also had a brief stay after joining in level eight but didn't last the level after running into Rex Clinkscales' flush.
When the play resumes the limits will be 1,000-2,000 and the returning 174 will battle through another ten 60-minute levels in a bid to build a stack for Day 3 and a shot at the gold bracelet.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for more coverage from this event, and every event during this summer's World Series of Poker.