Bring Out the Bags
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We were amazed to see the stacked line-up on Table 7 to start the day. In order around the table were Joel "StrongPlay" Dodds, the God-like David Steicke, 2007 APPT Sydney champion Grant Levy, Swede Rasmus Akerblom, and two-time WSOP Main Event champion Johnny Chan. That table did not disappoint during play, producing several of the biggest and most exciting pots. By the end of the day only Steicke and Levy had survived the carnage.
Speaking of Steicke -- and really, how can we not? -- he started off slowly but then gathered steam in the middle levels after catching a needed double-up, all in preflop with pocket kings against ace-queen. By the end of the day he had built a typical Steicke wall of poker chips that totalled 82,300, or four times the number he started with.
But 82,300 was not enough for the overnight chip lead. That honor goes to Brandon Demes, an American with two cashes at this year's World Series of Poker. Demes was the only player today to eclipse six figures, finishing the night with 102,200 chips. His reward is two days off in Macau to mentally prepare himself to return to the grind on Friday for Day 2.
We don't have such a luxury. We'll be back here in the Grand Lisboa poker room at 12:15pm tomorrow for Day 1b of this Main Event. We expect a larger field tomorrow and an even larger field on Thursday, putting this tournament on track for close to 500 total players. Who else will be joining Steicke and Demes on Day 2? Check back tomorrow to find out!