Bryan Campanello Bags Lead as Day 1a of the 2019 WSOP Main Event Comes to a Close
Day 1a is in the books for the 2019 World Series of Poker $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Main Event at the Rio All-Suites Hotel & Casino. A total of 1,335 entrants hit the felt for the premier poker tournament of the year, with 962 making it through the first day. There was no shortage of action with two more starting flights yet to come.
After five two-hour levels, bracelet winner Bryan Campanello managed to bag up an impressive 417,500 in chips to sit amongst the chip leaders at the end of the day. Campanello zoomed up the counts in Level 4 of the day, rivering a full house against a player's Broadway straight. The 2013 $2,500 Razz gold bracelet winner was able to keep rolling his way to one of the top stacks in the room by the end of the day.
A pair of former WSOP Main Event champions also made it through, as Qui Nguyen, the 2016 WSOP Main Event champ steadily chipped up through the day en route to bagging up 180,500. 2003 Main Event champ Chris Moneymaker managed to get through, bagging up 95,000.
Other players that navigated their way through Day 1 and progressed to Day 2ab include Patrick Serda (216,700), Jared Bleznick (189,100), Jeff Lisandro (180,100), Alex Foxen (173,200), Faraz Jaka (174,100), Martin Kabrhel (164,500), Jack Sinclair (153,800), Kelly Minkin (137,100), Billy Baxter (131,500), Brian Hastings (124,200), Elio Fox (73,400), Erik Seidel (57,400), and Stephen Chidwick (45,000).
Not everyone found themselves with chips at the end of the night, as plenty of notable names were unable to make it through. One high profile elimination occurred in Level 3, when Liv Boeree found herself busted at the hands of her boyfriend Igor Kurganov. Boeree had a classic response to her undoing at the hands of Kurganov, but the latter was able to utilize those chips to make it through the day with 129,100.
Others who fell on Day 1a include Shane Warne, David Williams, Kevin "Phwap" Boudreau, Frank Kassela, Bryan Piccioli, Daniel Alaei, Jerry Wong, Daniel Idema, Chris Moorman, Brian Altman, Steven van Zadelhoff, Brandon Adams and Lexy Gavin.
Randall Emmett once again made his presence felt all over today, first by having flamenco dancers deliver ice cream to everyone playing in today's flight. A short time later, Emmett made his way to the featured table, where he made himself heard immediately. He ended the night on a positive note before bagging 62,300 in chips, 2,300 more than he started the day with.
Day 1b will kick off tomorrow at noon local time, with players slated to play five two-hour levels again. Be sure to stay tuned right here to PokerNews to catch all the bust outs, big pots, and action as we kick off our second of three starting flights of the 2019 WSOP $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Main Event!