Day 1b Concludes; Kornuth Leading
Players have bagged and tagged for the evening and after nine and a half levels of poker, Adam Kornuth has emerged as the chip leader with an impressive 94,700 in chips. Following Kornuth on 89,900 is James Dambrosio.
Several notable players have been able to rise above the stiff competition in this event and earn themselves solid stacks going into Day 2. Among those returning tomorrow are Tony Dunst (38,700), Greg Mueller (37,000), Men Nguyen (31,000), Lars Bonding (29,500), Kathy Liebert (26,800), Mike Matusow (21,500), and Jake Cody (8,200)
John Juanda made a fantastic showing during play today and will be returning tomorrow with a stack of 70,600. Juanda saw himself gain a large amount of chips after the dinner break today when the board read 
. When two players checked and a third bet 1,600, Juanda pushed out a raise to 4,800. The first two players folded and Juanda's opponent made it 9,600 and Juanda quickly called.
The river brought the 
and Juanda's opponent moved 10,000 chips into the middle. Juanda moved all in and his opponent called, tabling 
for a flopped two pair. Juanda showed 
for a straight and was able to double up to 59,000. It was all uphill from there.
With a field this size, it was inevitable that many notable players found themselves felted before play ended. Eric Froelich, Gavin Smith, Steve O'Dwyer, Andy Frankenberger, Dwyte Pilgrim, Mario Ho, Freddy Deeb, and Yevgeniy Timoshenko are just a small sample size of the players to hit the rail today.
Team PokerStars had a fair showing today, with Jason Mercier (50,400) and Liv Boeree (57,700) thriving and moving on to Day 2. That being said, many of the PokerStars pros to enter the event today eventually found themselves walking to the rail. Those to enter and not find the fortunes that Mercier and Boeree found include Vanessa Selbst, Martin Staszko, Shane Schleger, Randy Lew, Vanessa Rousso, George Lind and Andre Akkari.
One name that continued to buzz around the Brasilia room was that of 2010 November-Niner Joseph Cheong. Cheong won his match going into the finals of Event 6: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Mixed-Max and at the same time was sitting on a stack of over 20,000 in Event 9. Once The Decision was reached that Cheong will play Aubin Cazals tomorrow morning at 9am, Cheong made an all or nothing move in Event 9.
After a raise to 2,300 from a late position player, Cheong moved all in for his remaining 21,000 from the big blind. His opponent called and showed 
which was racing with Cheong's 
. The tens held and Cheong was eliminated, and his table showered him with wishes of good luck and fortune for when he returns to the Rio tomorrow morning to play heads up for a gold bracelet.
The 260 remaining players from today's play will combine with the 254 runners from Day 1a for a grand total of 514 returning to Day 2. Giorgio Medici of Day 1a still leads the pack with the top stack of 106,500. Play will resume at 1pm local time and we will be here to provide you with all of the updates. Until tomorrow!
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