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I don't think there are too many former Main Event winners alive in the event, and certainly none to match the record of 1986 Champion Berry Johnston. But Johnston is indeed still in and was last spotted betting 400 into a flop of 
. Both opponents folded allowing Johnston to pick up the pot; he now has just under 35,000 with the average at 35,735.
Ali Sarkeshik and a short stack reached a 
flop. Sarkeshik asked for an approximate count before sliding a chunk of yellow 1,000 chips across the line. "I call," came the immediate response.
"Have you got ace-king?" probed Sarkeshik. "If you've got ace-king then I'm dead." "No, I have kings," was the reply as 
was flipped onto the felt. Sarkheshik shook his head and showed 
.
But despite his pessimism, the Poker Gods were in a generous mood, and duly rewarded the Brit with an 
on the turn. The short stack leapt out of his chair and said "Jesus f***ing Christ, he said he was dead."
After the blank river hit the felt, the victim stormed off, whilst Sarkeshik scooped in the pot. "You have to be lucky," he mused. "If he has more chips, he wins the pot."
Lucky or not, Sarkeshik has received a much-needed boost at a timely moment, and is now looking at taking over 70,000 into Day 2.
That's all we've got left before players bag their chips and collect their Day 2 seating assignments.
Right at the death, Russian journalist/semi-pro Ilya Gorodetskiy saw his stack sliced and diced. I didn't catch the action, but with a versus 
on a 
board, I sensed the worst... and the disgruntled look on Gorodetskiy was certainly telling part of the story. Nevertheless, he still has a playable stack with 37,000, although that will be of little comfort to him right now.
And what a Day 1 it's been! With 3,097 players sitting down to start off the day, we're already down to just under 400 through ten levels of play.
With such a huge field, it's no surprise that it was peppered with notable players. Those who will be showing up for another day of play tomorrow include our chip leader Will Failla (156,000), Chino Rheem (63,000), Dutch Boyd (61,000), Theo Tran (54,000), John Phan (58,500), John Juanda (50,000), David Chicotsky (46,000), Jonathan Little (41,000), Victor Ramdin (28,500), Tom Schneider (25,900) and Adam Junglen (24,000).
Many weren't so lucky, though. Included in those who won't be showing up tomorrow are Phil Ivey, Eric Baldwin, David Williams, Dennis Phillips, James Akenhead, Joe Sebok, Chris Moorman, Phil Gordon, Bertrand Grospellier, Neil Channing, Sorel Mizzi, Faraz Jaka, Shaun Deeb, Hoyt Corkins, Tony Dunst, Scott Montgomery, Scott Seiver, Jason Mercier and Antonio Esfandiari.
The screens went black before play concluded, so we're not sure exactly how many players are left, but it's certainly less than 400. That means we can expect to hit the money extremely quickly tomorrow. Make sure you join us at 2:30pm local time as we try to play down to a final table.
Event #45: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em
Day 1 Completed
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
168,000 | |
|
156,000 | |
|
136,900 | |
|
132,100 | |
|
|
131,000 | |
|
|
125,900 | |
|
124,100 | |
|
116,400 | |
|
112,800 | |
|
||
|
|
110,000 | |
|
109,900 | |
|
|
||
|
109,100 | |
|
|
108,500 | |
|
107,800 | |
|
|
102,500 | |
|
|
99,900 | |
|
|
97,700 | |
|
93,200 | |
|
||
|
|
92,700 | |
|
89,300 | |
|
||
|
|
88,700 | |
|
|
87,800 | |
|
87,700 | |
|
|
||
|
85,300 | |
|
85,100 | |
|
||
