Event #1: $500 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em Day 1 | 2010 World Series of Poker

We didn't quite make it to the final table today in the Casino Employees Event, but we did trim the starting field from 722 down to 53. Needless to say, there are more than a few elated casino employees looking forward to taking home a big bonus tomorrow.

Jack McClelland, Tournament Director for the Bellagio, had an up and down day. At times he was close to the chip lead, while other times he was down to just over ten big blinds. He managed to weather the storm and is currently working with about 15,000 in chips.

One of the day's dominant players, Cary Lucier, failed to make the money despite an at-times, commanding chip lead.

The night's chip leader seems to be Kent Washington, who had a commanding presence through much of the day. Right now he's sitting with about 150,000. Jonathan Kotula isn't too far behind. He flirted with the lead throughout the day and is currently well ahead of the pack with about 110,000 chips.

Samuel Sperrazza is just short of the century mark with 95,000 chips, and is currently occupying the third place on the leader board. Meanwhile, AJ Vea's 86,000 chips are keeping him in the top five along with Vinnie Vandall, who has 75,000 and entered the leaders' group not too long before the bubble.

53 players will return tomorrow to battle it out for the first bracelet of the 2010 World Series of Poker.

Day 2 resumes tomorrow at 2:30 PM.

Player	Chips	Progress
Kent Washington	168,300 93,300	93,300
Jonathan Kotula	108,700 66,700	66,700
Christopher Reider	107,500 51,500	51,500
Samuel Sperrazza	96,800 46,800	46,800
Arthur Vea	95,800 92,800	92,800
Yuta Motoyama	72,100 30,100	30,100
Matthew Hollinger	71,700 40,700	40,700
Vincent Vandall	68,200 65,200	65,200
Hoai Pham	65,800 62,800	62,800
Zhen Cai	65,000 50,000	50,000
Jeffrey Bennett	59,000 56,000	56,000
Christopher Perez	58,900 55,900	55,900
Patrick Silvey	57,700 54,700	54,700
Brian Phillis	53,000 50,000	50,000
Justin Paris	50,300 16,300	16,300
Edward Martin	48,500 18,500	18,500
Derek Dillman	45,800 32,800	32,800
Javier Rincon	45,100 42,100	42,100
Brooks Blake	43,800 40,800	40,800
Vu Pham	42,000 39,000	39,000
Daniel Hecht	41,700 38,700	38,700
Barry Hulunian	40,300 37,300	37,300
David Fischer	39,900 36,900	36,900
Dean Saito	37,000 23,300	23,300
David Patent	34,100 31,100	31,100

Player

Chips

Progress

Kent Washington

168,300

93,300

Jonathan Kotula

108,700

66,700

Christopher Reider

107,500

51,500