Tony Parille Builds a Colossus of a Stack on Day 1a

A colossal field of 2,024 entries gathered at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino Saturday for Day 1a of Event #7: $565 COLOSSUS No-Limit Hold’em chasing a guaranteed $1,000,000 top prize. Just 84 were left with chips after 18 levels and sitting atop the counts was Tony Parille.

Starting with just 5,000, Parille gathered a mountain of 607,000 by day's end to lead the way. Almost double that of his closest competitor, Matthew Davidow, who himself mustered an impressive 313,000. Dylan Hortin (299,000), Matthew Silva (277,000), and Eric Shimp (263,000) were also among the leaders.

A few notables also moving on to Day 2 include Robert Hawkins (194,000), Justin Liberto (164,000), 2010 WSOP Main Event Champion, Jonathan Duhamel (118,000), and David Ormsby (117,000).

A bonus for players on any Day 1 is the ability to make the money even if their journey comes to an end before the end of play. With 2,024 entries on Day 1a, 304 spots would make the money, guaranteeing a min-cash worth at least $833. Owen Crowe, Ronnie Bardah, and Shannon Shorr were just a few of the notables to leave with a consolation prize.

Josias Santos popped the bubble just after the break in Level 13 on the first hand of hand-for-hand play. With multiple all-ins occurring at different tables, Santos was the only big stack to eliminate his opponent. Santos called a late position shove on the button with pocket kings, besting his opponent's queen-jack suited.

A few stars unable to get anything going, busting long before the bubble included Phil Hellmuth, Mike Leah, Kristen Bicknell, Alex Foxen, and Tony Cousineau.

All is not lost though for anyone not securing a seat for Day 2. There are five more Day 1s on the schedule including Day 1b which began at 5 PM Saturday evening. Here's a look at the rest of the COLOSSUS schedule: