Brian Rast Leads After Day 1 of Poker Masters Event #5: $100,000 NLHE; Negreanu in Third
Day 1 of the Poker Masters Event #5: $100,000 drew 35 players, and with faster-than-anticipated action, the field was whittled down to 15 players with inaugural Super High Roller Bowl champ Brian Rast and his stack of 959,000 leading the way.
The final tally will actually be at least 36 as we’ve been told Byron Kaverman will jump into action tomorrow. The winner will ultimately walk away with at more than $1.5 million (exact payouts and prizes will be announced once registration comes to a close), which is enough to give the winner The Poker Masters Purple Jacket™, provided those up there in earnings don’t make deep runs and add even more to their totals.
For example, Steffen Sontheimer is still alive with a stack of 696,500. He’s made three final tables this week and even won Event #2. He’s currently atop the Poker Masters leaderboard with $1,221,000 million, meaning another cash could possibly lock it up for him.
The next six players on the earnings leaderboard busted on Day 1, meaning the only remaining players even close to Sontheimer in earnings are Fedor Holz ($550,000), Jake Schindler ($409,500), and Stefan Schillhabel ($306,000).
It’s also worth noting that if Daniel Negreanu (745,500) can pull out a win, and Sontheimer doesn’t add considerably to his total, “Kid Poker” stands to win over $1 million via his highly-publicized side bets.
Event #5: $100,000 NLHE Day 1 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brian Rast | USA | 959,000 |
| 2 | Justin Bonomo | USA | 780,500 |
| 3 | Daniel Negreanu | Canada | 745,500 |
| 4 | Steffen Sontheimer | Germany | 696,500 |
| 5 | Fedor Holz | Germany | 662,500 |
| 6 | Stefan Schillhabel | Germany | 539,000 |
| 7 | Jake Schindler | USA | 507,000 |
| 8 | Ben Tollerene | USA | 499,000 |
| 9 | Seth Davies | USA | 479,000 |
| 10 | Dan Smith | USA | 476,500 |
| 11 | Christian Christner | Germany | 377,500 |
| 12 | Dan Shak | USA | 236,000 |
| 13 | Stephen Chidwick | UK | 69,500 |
| 14 | Phil Hellmuth | USA | 49,500 |
The tournament kicked off with a quick elimination. Just 10 minutes in, Event #1 champ Nick Schulman, who began the day third in Poker Masters earnings with $918,000, flopped trip tens and played it strong against Scott Seiver. Unfortunately for Schulman, Seiver held pocket queens and a third lady appeared on the river. The chips went in and that was all she wrote for Schulman.
Before the first break of the day, Doug Polk joined him on the rail. Polk, who sat fifth in Poker Masters earnings with $612,000 thanks to a runner-up finish in Event #4, shoved holding a straight only to run it into the heart flush of Sontheimer.
Others who fell before Level 5 finished were Lawrence Greenberg, Adrian Mateos, Alan Schein, Sean Winter, Jason Koon and Poker Masters Event #4 winner Brandon Adams. In Level 6, Event #3 champ Bryn Kenney exited when his pocket fours failed to hold against the queen-eight suited of Ben Tollerene. That left Sontheimer as the only Poker Masters $50K prelim winner remaining.
Others to fall before night’s end were Sergio Aido, Isaac Haxton, David Peters, Dominik Nitsche, Nick Petrangelo, Cary Katz, Rainer Kempe, Koray Aldemir, Tom Marchese, Seiver, Matt Hyman, and Poker Hall of Famer Erik Seidel.
Day 2 of the Poker Masters Event #5: $100,000 NLHE will get underway at 2 p.m. local time here is Las Vegas. We’ll once again be bringing you all the action and eliminations straight from the tournament floor, so be sure to join us then.