A Huge Day Sees Maimone Lead the Pack
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What a huge day of poker! The action on Day 1 of Event 50: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em has exceeded expectations to become the largest field this event has ever seen, with 1,001 players creating a prize pool of $4,704,700. That’s 136 more players than participated in this event last year when Allen Bari took the down the bracelet. Who will join Bari as a champion of this event? Well, as of right now it is Nick Maimone who has the best chance, as he finished up the day as the chip leader with 196,600 in chips.
We are not exaggerating when we say that every single table in the field today had multiple big names from the poker world. Of course that just means that dozens of the most prominent players in poker were eliminated throughout the day and some of those include the likes of Jason Mercier, Fabrice Soulier, Layne Flack, Christian Harder, Joe Serock, Vanessa Rousso and Antonio Esfandiari.
Another player who couldn’t last more than a couple of hours was Lex Veldhuis. The last hand of Veldhuis’ tournament saw him put in five bets to be all-in holding 
on a 
flop. His opponent called him off holding 
and when a heart fell on the river, it was all over for Veldhuis.
Some of the other players that joined Veldhuis on the rail later in the day include Justin Bonomo, Bertrand Grospellier, Jennifer Tilly, David “Doc” Sands, Brian Rast and Daniel Negreanu. Also finding the exit door was Viktor Blom as he busted just a short while after he registered. Blom was short stacked within an hour of entering the tournament and then got his stack all in holding 
on the turn of a 
board. He asked his opponent if he had trips and then the player obliged by turning over 
. With no club on the river, it was all over for Blom.
A player who managed to do far better than the above players was Galen Hall. One of the biggest hands of the day saw Hall win a huge amount of chips when he held 
and turned a set against a player who held an over pair. Hall finished off the day with 129,800 in chips and full details about Hall’s massive hand can be read here.
Joining Maimone and Hall at the tables tomorrow with a huge amount of chips include Michael Drummond (158,000), Gordon Vayo (147,500) and Thiago Nishijima (135,200). Also returning with enough chips to scare are Stephen Chidwick (128,600) and Tommy Vedes (107,100), while notable names Jackie Glazier (94,700), Andrew Lichtenberger (78,300) and Alexander Kravchenko (77,000) also have plenty of chips.
Phil Ivey and Phil Hellmuth are also still in with a chance in Event 50, bagging up 72,200 and 79,000 respectively. Some of those who are clinging to life and will need some help tomorrow are Adam Friedman (6,600), Andy Frankenberger (11,200) and Jennifer Harman (16,300).
A total of 303 players will be taking part in Day 2 action and each and every one will be hoping they can make a run at the huge $952,694 first place and of course, the World Series of Poker gold bracelet. It is all set to kick off at 1:00 PM Friday and PokerNews will again be on the floor providing you all the live coverage.