Day 1a Concludes
“Players, please leave your chips on the table. Do not take your chips home with you!”
Such was the instruction Tournament Director Steve Frezer half-jokingly delivered as players bagged their chips at the end of play today. Indeed, after a long day of taking such care of those chips, one could perhaps understand if a player were to allow the protective instinct to continue beyond the end of play.
We’ve arrived at the end of the first of two Day Ones for Event No. 3, the first of the $1,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em events at this year’s Series. A huge field of 2,601 turned out today, and after ten one-hour levels, we saw a few stacks starting to flirt with the 100,000-chip range.
Those bagging the most chips at the end of play today included Drew Crawford, Nancy Todd Tyner, Brent Roberts, Jerrymee Jose, Dan Lu, and Blake Cahail. They’ll be joining approximately 280 others who survived today’s Day 1a -- as well as those who make it through tomorrow’s Day 1b -- at 2:30pm on Monday afternoon for Day 2.
Players continue to register for tomorrow’s Day 1b, and tourney officials have indicated they can accommodate as many as 3,700 more runners on Sunday. Most are anticipating a total field of 6,000 or thereabouts, meaning we’re probably looking at a first prize somewhere in the $750,000 range -- not a bad return on a $1,000 investment!
Come back here to PokerNews tomorrow at noon Vegas time to see how many do eventually come out and how they fare.