DeMaci Day 1a Chip Leader with 213,300
The Big Event Main Event kicked-off at the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, California with 263 players forking over the $5,000 buy-in on Day 1a. Given the rebranding circumstances surrounding the event, and the concurrent NBC National Heads-Up Championship in Las Vegas, no one was certain just who would show up for the tournament. As it turned out, the pros came out in force to take their shot at The Big Event title. By the end of the day, approximately 130 players remained with Chris DeMaci emerging as the Day 1a chip leader with 213,300. Hot on his heels are Alex Kamberis (202,800) and Jason Wheeler (179,700).
Kamberis got his monster stack after a player on the button raised to 2,000 and the small blind made it 5,000 to go. Kamberis proceeded to pop it to 11,000, with 
, the small blind called, and the flop came down 
. Given the small blind held , all the money, about 90,000 each, went in on the flop and Kamberis’ straight held.
Two former World Series of Poker Main Event Champions were in action today in the form of Tom McEvoy (1983) and Joe Hachem (2005). Both players managed to survive the day, though with quite opposite stacks, as McEvoy bagged up short while Hachem was fairly healthy. Joining them on Day 2 are some other top professionals in Pat Pezzin, Victor Ramdin, Govert Metaal, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Joseph Cheong, James Mackey, Anh Van Nguyen, Greg Debora and Jeff Williams, just to name a few.
Unfortunately, not everyone was so lucky. Justin “Boosted J” Smith, Bryn Kenney, Dan Heimiller, Chino Rheem, Chris Moorman, and Darryll Fish were among the early eliminations of Day 1a. Also failing to survive were David “Doc” Sands, Bruce Buffer, Adam Levy, Randal Flowers, Maria Ho, Shaun Deeb, and McLean Karr.
Day 1b is set to begin at Noon PST tomorrow where the field is expected to be a bit smaller due to the slate of Sunday online tournaments. Nonetheless, the final field will be determined along with the prize pool. PokerNews will be here to bring you all the latest hands, action, and eliminations, live, from the Big Event at The Bicycle Casino.