Day 1 of the largest $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em tournament of the World Series of Poker thus far has officially come to a close. This event yielded an incredible turnout with a total of 3,166 runners ponying up the $1,500 buy-in to participate. Mario Nagel emerged as the chip leader by the end of eleven levels with a stack of 158,700.
Several players were able to work their stacks over the hundred-thousand mark. Among those on the heels of Nagel are Luke Nettles (125,300), Michael Ruane (110,300), Graydon Kowal (105,800), and Bryan Piccioli (102,400).
Today's play started with a whopping 3,166 players and by the end of the night almost 90% of those players were sent home with nothing but a story. Among those to try and overcome the large field only to come up short were Dwyte Pilgrim, Allen Kessler, Men Nguyen, Erik Cajelais, Lauren Kling, Bill Chen, David Benyamine, Jeff Lisandro, Ana Marquez, Dutch Boyd, Lex Veldhuis, and Hollywood's James Woods.
That being said several notable names were able to wade through the large field and move on to Day 2. Brock Parker (70,900), Victoria Coren (67,400), Aaron Jones (55,100), Ali Eslami (54,100), David Sands (41,400), Martin Staszko (32,300), Steve Dannenmann (28,000), and Matt Affleck (27,400) are just some of the players who will be returning to the felt tomorrow.
Also to have a seat with his name on it is last year's champion of this very event: Athanasios Polychronopoulos. Polychronopoulos will be bringing a stack of 37,300 chips with him into play tomorrow and will be looking to recapture the title that made him a notable name in the poker world last year.
Early on in the day James Woods was the player to watch. By the end of level 3 Woods had amassed a stack of 30,000 in chips and there seemed to be no stopping him from steamrolling his table. Unfortunately for Woods, the worst happened when he flopped middle set against another large stack at the table who held pocket queens for top set. Woods lost a majority of his stack during this hand and entered a downward spiral that led to his bust before the dinner break.
Cherish Andrews' large stack is yet another astounding story to emerge from today's play. Earlier on in the 2012 WSOP, Andrews played in Event 31: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em and finished Day 1 as chip leader. Andrews rode her massive stack all the way to the final table where she eventually finished fourth for a quarter of a million dollar prize. Andrews finished play today more than healthy with a stack of 63,700 and she is primed to add another WSOP cash to her resume.
Play will resume at 2:00 PM tomorrow instead of the usual 1:00 PM. We are just 24 eliminations away from the money so be sure to tune in early as we walk the path to crowning yet another World Series of Poker bracelet winner.
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Cherish AndrewsMario Nagel
