Baitai Li Dominates Day 1 of Event #48: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em
Event #48: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em started down its four-day path to a winner today, attracting 996 entries. All are uniques; this tournament is an old-school freeze-out where deeper pockets prove no advantage. Many well-known players took the option to enter well after the starting whistle, including Phils Hellmuth and Ivey who came in just at the close of registration but could not spin their 15 big blind starting stacks into a Day 2 appearance.
The prize pool for this event is $2,241,000, from which the winner will receive $427,399 along with their 2019 WSOP bracelet. With 150 paid (a min-cash being worth $3,746), the bubble will come into focus quickly tomorrow as 201 players currently remain.
Leading the Day 1 survivors – by quite a margin – is Baitai Li with 354,800 chips. While the likes of Barny Boatman, Mark Radoja and Antal Mezei bagged stacks in the quarter of a million region, Li’s stack gives him 221 big blinds of maneuvering room while many will return short.
Also progressing to Day 2 are double bracelet winners Kristen Bicknell (129,500), Michael Addamo (108,300) and Humberto Brenes (26,500), while Martin Jacobson ends the day with 103,000. Of the finalists who took part in today’s $600 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em and Pot-Limit Omaha event, three jumped into Event #48 with little pause for breath – Rainer Kempe, Stephen Ma and Raghav Bansal. Bansal alone made it through Level 10, bagging 111,600 chips. Full chip counts will follow overnight.
Play resumes at 1pm; live coverage continues as the hunt for the next No Limit Hold’em bracelet whittles down a tough field over 10 one-hour levels.