According to the table, four players limped and Matt Waxman raised it to 11,000 in the cutoff. The big blind sent 75,000 in the middle and it folded back to Waxman who shoved for 85,000, holding K♠K♣. The big blind completed with QxQx in his hands.
A dry board didn't bring any bad surprise to Waxman who took down the double up before the end of the day.
After the last four hands, floors brought the bags to every table. All remaining players are qualified for Day 2 that will take place on Sunday, June 25 at 10 a.m..
A large total of 4,585 entries filled almost the entire room at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino for Day 1a of Event #53: $1,500 Millionaire Maker.
Out of all those entries, only 1,012 players made it through to Day 2 that will be playing out on Sunday, June 25. The chip leader for Day 1a is Nicola Basile, who bagged an impressive 480,000.
Basile already had a big stack as the day was winding down and kept winning small pots to stay on top of the end-of-day counts. The Canadian player, holder of three WSOP rings, is still in the hunt for his first gold bracelet.
Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Nicola Basile
Canada
480,000
192
2
Peng Li
United States
460,000
184
3
Paul Gunness
United States
430,000
172
4
Ryan Dodd
United States
414,500
166
5
Alex Greenblatt
United States
405,500
162
6
Osman Ihlamur
Turkey
392,000
157
7
Lawrence Beach
United States
361,000
144
8
Jamie Rosen
United States
357,000
143
9
Bin Weng
United States
353,500
141
10
Matthew Shepsky
United States
331,500
133
A few other notables players who bagged large stacks were Alex Greenblatt (405,400), owner of one WSOP ring, Chinese player Yake Wu (325,000), Turkish Osman Ilhamur (302,000) and Renan Bruschi (261,000) , who recently final tabled Event #36: $ 3,000 Mixed Games: Nine Game Mix.
Several of the biggest names in poker participated in today’s action and among those who bagged a stack were Jeff Platt (206,500), bracelet winners Jason Wheeler (184,500), Ryan Leng (174,000), Kristen Foxen (127,500) and Jessica Teusl (90,000).
Two Main Events champions will also be keeping a close eye on Day 2, with Martin Jacobson (169,000) and Ryan Riess (42,000) still in the race.
Ryan Riess
Not everyone was able to make it through to the next day of play. Players like Alex Foxen, Main Event Champion Chris Moneymaker, Jason Wheeler, member of WSOP Thrill Team Samantha Abernathy, Katie Lindsay, Ismael Bojang, Upeshka de Silva, Leo Margets, David Pham and Loni Hui saw their stacks run down to zero before the conclusion of play.
But they and others will all be able to try again on Saturday, June 24 for Day 1b, which starts at 10am local time. The players that manage to survive either of these starting flights will be returning to play on Day 2 on Sunday, June 25, at 10 am local time.
PokerNews will continue to provide live updates for the Millionaire Maker in its entirety as we will see who will realize their dream to become the next poker millionaire and win a WSOP bracelet!
