Eric Crain Holds Sizable Lead After Day 1
The first day of the 50th event of the 2014 World Series of Poker has come to a close. After 10 full levels of play, just 106 of the 485 entrants in Event #50: $1,500 Eight-Game Mix advanced to Day 2. Leading the field with a sizable chip lead is Eric Crain with 71,600.
This marks the second year in a row that Crain has bagged up the Day 1 chip lead in the eight-game event. During last year's $2,500 Eight-Game, Crain bagged up 69,925 for the official chip lead. This year he managed to put more chips in the bag with a significantly smaller starting stack. Crain ultimately finished in fourth place last year for just over $64,000 in prize money.
Despite Crain's success during last year's WSOP, he's been unable to gain footing in 2014. His performance today puts him in the best position of the remaining 106 and could allow him to turn his summer around. Late in the day, we caught up with Crain to find him eliminate an opponent from play during a round of limit hold'em. From that point on, Crain soared to the top of the chip counts, adding well over 50,000 to his stack in the last two levels of the night.
While Crain certainly had the most successful day, many other players built their 4,500-chip starting stack up to a respectable size for Day 2. Some of the recognizable players returning for Day 2 include Mike Gorodinsky (45,000), Aaron Steury (35,575), Brandon Cantu (30,200), Martin Staszko (26,725), Ali Eslami (26,700), Dan Heimiller (23,950), Justin Bonomo (21,900), Amnon Filippi (20,450), Joe Hachem (13,000), Maria Ho (11,575), Bill Chen (11,575), and Calvin Anderson (10,025).
Not every player could bag up by the end of the night, and many of those to sit down today saw all of their chips disappear before the final hands of the evening were announced. Some of those to show up only to fall included Mike Matusow, Calen McNeil, George Danzer, Tim Fiorvanti, Mike Sexton, Barry Greenstein, Bryan Micon, Dan Shak, David Williams, Layne Flack, Cyndy Violette, Brett Richey, Brian Rast, and Gavin Smith.
Play resumes on Thursday at 2 p.m. As always, be sure to keep your browsers locked on PokerNews for all of the latest as this exciting tournament returns for Day 2.