Maria Konnikova won her Platinum Pass in the $1,100 PCA National one year ago and also reached the money in the same event one year later, albeit with just ten big blinds. Konnikova was eliminated early on Day 2 and has jumped into Day 1a of the Main Event soon after.
Jimmy Guerrero in the big blind and Thomas Muehloecker from under the gun both checked to Alan Schein on the 
flop and Schein made it 1,200 to go. Guerrero quickly called, Muehloecker got out of the way.
On the 
turn both players checked and Guerrero bet the 
river for 4,000. That prompted a fold from Schein and he was shown the 
.
"That beat me," Schein joked. Thi Xoa Nguyen is also on the same table now, in the nine seat.
Haim Gabay appears to be the first casualty on Day 1a after he just sent over the remainder of his stack to JC Alvarado. The board had already been completed and showed 
with some 8,000 in the middle.
A blue T-5,000 chip was in front of Gabay and he had another 7,200 behind only for Alvarado to move all in. Gabay was immediately taken aback, gave it a few seconds of thought and called with the words "I hope you have ace-king."
Alvarado turned over 
for two pair, having missed his flush draw, and Gabay mucked 
before heading to the rail.
Over on table eight, Carlos Levy has nearly doubled his stack within the first two levels while Sergi Reixach dropped to just over one third of the starting stack. Reixach remained involved in the action and took on Kavin Shah just now, who check-called a bet of 900 on the 
turn out of the small blind.
Shah then bet the 
river for 2,600 and Reixach sent his cards into the muck.
Further assorted chip counts can be found below.
Several new players have entered the Day 1a field including Jake Schwartz, former EPT champions Noah Boeken, John Dibella and Harrison Gimbel, as well as Ben Heath and Thomas Muehloecker.
Muehloecker was just spotted in action against Dimitar Yosifov, who had opened the action in early position. Muehloecker was in middle position and the action checked to him on the heads-up turn of 
. What followed was a bet by the Austrian for 1,800 and that was all it took to win the pot without further resistance.
The pictures are courtesy of Carlos Monti.
A bigger pot of 8,000 had emerged and the completed board showed 
. Athanasios Polychronopoulos in the big blind made it 5,300 to go and his sole remaining opponent Andrew Chen in the cutoff gave it some thought before tossing in a chip for the call.
Polychronopoulos turned over 
for a full house and that won the pot.
Brian Altman has also started well, at the expense of Lexy Gavin who dropped well below the starting stack.
Level: 2
Blinds: 100/100
Ante: 100
With some 5,000 in the middle and the turn showing 
, Vittorio Dicriso and Guillaume Nolet started a raising war that saw the latter at risk for 23,200 and in need of help.
Guillaume Nolet: 
Vittorio Dicriso: 
The miracle 
appeared on the river and Dicriso gasped "oh my god", dropping to just over one third of the starting stack.
Griffin Benger has started well and already earned a decent profit in the first level of the day. A few tables over, Sosia Jiang and Tim Reilly joined table 10 to make it even more notables at once.
Further new entries include Robert Heidorn, Florian Duta and JC Alvarado, 2018 EPT Sochi Main Event champion Arsenii Karmatckii is also in the Day 1a field as well.
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