Day 1 Complete With Tryba Leading The Way
After eight levels of play, Day 1 of the 2011 North American Poker Tour Mohegan Sun is complete. A field of 387 came to play, creating a prize pool of $1,746,330 and a $450,000 first-place prize. Only 230 will be returning for Day 2 and at the top of counts is Chris Tryba with 173,400. (There is one player who listed 217,000, but we are skeptical...)
Tryba won a huge pot near the end of Level 8 to vault to the chip lead. The board read 
and it hit three players. Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov held middle set of sevens, one-time chip leader Mehrdad Yousefzadeh held top set of jacks, and Tryba help 
for a flush draw. It got there in a big way as the river brought the 
, much to Tryba's delight.
Not far behind is PokerStars Team Pro Vanessa Rousso with 125,300. Late in the day, Rousso absolutely caught fire during what she called, "The sickest level of her life." Also with six figures is PokerStars Team Pro Victor Ramdin (123,000), Adam Junglen (117,600), Mike "Little Man" Sica (112,700), John D'Agostino (112,500) and Carlos Moretensen (107,400).
Still in the field is 2010 North American Poker Tour Mohegan Sun Champion Vanessa Selbst. She bagged up 87,600 and will be looking for the back-to-back. Others that will be returning for Day 2 are Faraz Jaka (54,500), PokerStars Team Pro Jason Mercier (30,800), Amnon Filippi (29,000), Jeff Madsen (26,200), and Matt Glantz (12,200).
On the other end of the spectrum, several big names were unable to make it through to Day 2. Team PokerStars Pros Chris Moneymaker, Daniel Negreanu, and David Williams could not get anything going at all and were eliminated early on. Joining them on the rail as the day went on were Bryn Kenney, Kathy Liebert, Melanie Weisner, Dan Heimiller, Chau Giang, and Erick Lindgren.
Play resumes tomorrow at Noon EST where we expect another eight levels to be played. Be sure to keep it here with PokerNews as we continute to provide all of the exciting action. Until then, good night from Connecticut!