Nick Maimone Leads Field After Day 1
After 11 long levels of play, Day 1 of Event 16: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Handed is history. The massive field kept climbing throughout the first four levels and eventually landed on a total of 1,604 entrants, which generated a handsome $2,165,400 prize pool. Nick Maimone would end the day as chip leader with 175,900. World Series of Poker bracelet-winner Mark Radoja is nipping at his heels, however, with 172,500.
The entrants fell just as fast as they rose – with over a third of the field eliminated by the end of the beginning of the fifth level. In fact, eliminations came so swiftly that we were even able to burst the money bubble on the final level of the day. Only 137 survived to see Day 2 – a mere 8.5% of the original field.
This event was popular with the pros, to be sure. Some who made an appearance, but were unable to survive into Day 2, include Daniel Negreanu, Shannon Shorr, Shaun Deeb, Dwyte Pilgrim, Faraz Jaka, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Vanessa Selbst, Jerry Yang and Phil Ivey.
Another notable elimination was that of online cash-game sensation Viktor Blom, who earned his first WSOP cash for finishing in 151st place ($2,706).
Even so, plenty of big names were able to bag up chips for the night, including Mike “The Mouth” Matusow (15,700), Todd Terry (84,600), Tristan Wade (84,200), Tony Dunst (21,000), Adam Junglen (43,500), Sam Grafton (99,400), Matt Matros (118,700) and Frank Kasella (75,000).
Here are our chip leaders going into Day 2:
| Rank | Player | Chip Count | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nick Maimone | 175,900 | |
| 2 | Mark Radoja | 172,500 | |
| 3 | Thijmen Stocker | 156,000 | |
| 4 | Joe Cappuccio | 152,000 | |
| 5 | Matt Matros | 118,700 | |
| 6 | Matty Levine | 105,000 | |
| 7 | Sam Grafton | 99,400 | |
| 8 | Mark Burford | 91,200 | |
| 9 | Andy Seth | 86,00 | |
| 10 | Todd Terry | 84,600 |
Day 2 is set to begin at 1:00 PM local time. Please stay tuned to PokerNews as we make our way to the final table. Until then, we wish you a good night!