Having taken a hit early today after his pocket kings were cracked when an opponent with pocket fives flopped a set, Travis Williams battled gamely with a below-average stack for nearly seven levels until his Day 1a finally came to an end. Kings proved unkind to him again in his last hand when a final short-stack shove was met with a player in the blinds waking up with , and five cards later Williams was out.
Williams has already bought his seat for the Day 1b flight, however, so we'll see be seeing him again soon.
At the moment, the big clock says that we have 304 entrants. However, registration is still open through the end of the day, so we expect that number to go up. We won't have an official count on the number of players in the tournament until registration officially closes at the start of play tomorrow.
There was 11,000 in the middle on a board that read , and Micah Raskin was heads up with another opponent. Raskin fired out a big bet of 8,500, and his opponent tanked for about 45 seconds before kicking his hand in.
Despite that hand, Raskin was down from the last time we saw him. He was as high as 65,000, but now he's down to 58,000.
Following a raise from the cutoff to 1,500, it folded to Lee Childs in the big blind who reraised his short stack of 9,650 all in, and after a moment of deliberation his opponent called.
Childs tabled while his opponent showed , and when the flop brought three black cards both players sat back in their seats. The board ended up an interesting-looking , provoking others to comment in woulda-coulda fashion on the flushes they'd missed, but the end result was an anticlimactic chop.
A short-stacked Lana O'Brien open-raised all in from early position and it folded around to an opponent in the cutoff seat who called all in for around 3,500. The others skedaddled, O'Brien turned over and her opponent .
The community cards came , and O'Brien earned a boost to her stack as another Day 1a player hits the rail.
With just over one level left, we are starting to see some big stacks emerge. As of right now, the biggest stack appears to be that of Leo Walker. He has an assortment of towers and colors in his stacks, but by our best estimation, he has about 88,000.
There was 4,500 in the middle of a three handed pot that included Leo Walker, Alex Cordero, and one other player. The flop came down , and action checked to Walker, who fired out 3,000. The other player folded, but Cordero came along for the ride.
The turn was the , and this time, Cordero bet, announcing 2,200. Walker cut the chips out, delayed for a few seconds, then tossed them in. The river was the , and both players quickly checked.
Cordero turn over for queens and fives, and Walker flashed his hand, , before mucking it. Walker takes a tiny tumble to 83,000 after the hand, while Cordero is back up to 19,000.
, and five cards later Williams was out.
flop saw Scott Baumstein all in and at risk with 
(two pair) versus an opponent's 
(one pair and a gutshot straight draw).
to give his opponent trips and the New Yorker has been eliminated.
while his opponent showed 
, and when the flop brought three black cards both players sat back in their seats. The board ended up an interesting-looking 
, provoking others to comment in woulda-coulda fashion on the flushes they'd missed, but the end result was an anticlimactic chop.
and her opponent 
, and O'Brien earned a boost to her stack as another Day 1a player hits the rail.
for queens and fives, and Walker flashed his hand, 
, before mucking it. Walker takes a tiny tumble to 83,000 after the hand, while Cordero is back up to 19,000.