Ten levels of poker have come and gone here in Event #9, and Day 1 of the $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em event is a wrap.
A field of runners 654 strong turned up this afternoon to get this tournament under way, a slight increase over last year's turnout. And what a ridiculously stacked field we had! Defending champion JP Kelly was on hand to try and go back-to-back, but he was unable to escape the first day this time around, the victim of a particularly brutal table that he joined midway through the first level.
A whole pot load of other notables were also in the mix very briefly at the start of the day. Joe Sebok, Annette Obrestad, Jeff Madsen, Lacey Jones, Chris Ferguson, Antonio Esfandiari, Joe Cada, Lex Veldhuis, Jon Aguiar, Gavin Griffin -- those are just a few of the familiar faces who couldn't even escape the first half of their opening session. The full list of bust-outs is too long to discuss here, so we'll tell you who is still alive heading into tomorrow's moving day instead.
James "Flushy" Dempsey had himself one whale of a day, and he is going to lead the pack into Day 2. His finishing count of 205,900 is quite impressive, but it hasn't put him all the way in the clear just yet. Scott Montgomery was in and out of the chip lead for the balance of the night, and another late surge put him all the way up to 193,000 at day's end, he and Flushy setting the pace for the rest of the field. Jim Lewis (154,400) is another name you'll be hearing from tomorrow, and JJ Liu is also right up there with the big boys after a few late pots were pushed into her corner.
Apart from the big stacks, we're still blessed with a strong contingent of notable names in the remaining field. Joe Serock is hanging around after an up-and-down day, and Tom Schneider, Jason Potter, and Christian Harder are all fighting to put themselves in a position to make a deep run. Jonathan Little, Todd Terry, Steve O'Dwyer, and Melissa Hayden are also still in contention to win this thing, though they'll have significant work to do tomorrow.
By the time the chip bags came out, 90% of the field had already been dispatched of. Just 65 players survived this bloodbath of an opening day, and there's only room for 63 of them on the payout sheet. That means two unlucky souls will wake up tomorrow and come to the Amazon for just a few unhappy minutes of poker, only to leave with the proverbial wooden spoon for their efforts.
We'll be here at 2:30 p.m sharp, and we'll be set to bring you all of the action from the bubble and beyond as the charge to the final table heats up.
Tags:
James Dempsey
was out on board when we walked up, and JJ Liu led out with a bet of 9,100. Her opponent raised the pot, up to 38,400, and Liu moved all in with the covering stack. The other player made the call for his own tournament life, turning up 
for two pair. Liu showed 
for the naked flush draw, but it wasn't a draw for long.
on the river was safe, though, and that knockout moves Liu up to about 122,000 chips and into the ranks of the chip leaders just as the night comes to a close.
and Liv is gone. Kahlmeyer is now up to 29,000 chips.
, only to run smack into Scott Montgomery's 
.
put 
, and Montgomery bet out 12,000, successfully folding the third player in the hand and putting him heads up with a chance to eliminate Raap. But Raap was in good shape:
was safe for Raap, and so was the 
on the river. A pair of queens is plenty good, and Raap has pulled in a triple up to 43,500.