Jake Daniels Bags Chip Lead After Day 1 of Event #6: $25,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold'em
The first No-Limit Hold'em High Roller event got underway today at the 2021 World Series of Poker with Event #6: $25,000 High Roller NLHE kicking off in the afternoon. A total of 135 entries were recorded on Day 1, and Jake Daniels topped the 54 remaining players, holding the chip lead with 1,182,000 chips.
Daniels had a brilliant end to the day, accumulating the majority of his chips in the final two levels of the night. It started off as an innocent hand, but it quickly turned into the largest pot of the day when Daniels collided with Eric Worre. Worre check-raised the flop, bet the turn, and shoved all-in on the river, picking up a call from Daniels the entire way. Worre turned over a small pair as a bluff, and Daniels held top pair to scoop the pot.
Just moments later, Daniels eliminated Daniel Negreanu in a coin flip when just about everything seemed to be going Daniels' way. It wasn't until recently that Daniels joined the high-roller scene but has since been on a tear with several podium finishes that resulted in six-figure paydays. Over the past two years, Daniels has accumulated nearly almost all of his $2.1 million in career earnings.
Some other big stacks to join Daniels at the top of the leaderboard include Michael Liang (1,028,000), James Chen (835,000), Jake Schindler (667,000), and Clayton Kalisek (610,000). The field was littered with big names and previous WSOP bracelet winners, some of which will return for Day 2 and others that will not. Most notably, Michael Addamo burned through both of his bullets today so will not be in the hunt for another WSOP title and another big payday.
As per usual in these high-stakes tournaments, there was no shortage of action to begin the day, even though players started with 150 big blinds. In the first hand of the day, Brian Altman found his entire stack in the middle, but his opponent reluctantly laid his hand down. Altman continued that momentum throughout the day but tailed off in the later stages.
There will be at least 54 players returning for Day 2 tomorrow, which gets underway at 2 p.m. local time. Late registration remains open until the start of play, and there will likely be a flurry of late entries making their way into the Amazon Room with hopes of receiving a share of the prize pool.
The blinds resume at 5,000/10,000 and a 10,000 big blind ante, and all new starting stacks will begin with 150,000 chips. The schedule for the day calls for 60-minute levels with a dinner break after six levels. Play will conclude once a final table is reached, and those players will return on Day 3 of the tournament.
Follow along for all of the up-to-date action as the PokerNews live reporting team will be here to bring you all of the live updates throughout the tournament.