Phil Ivey Among Big Names to Survive Day 1 Event #44: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Bounty
Today saw the start of Event #44: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Bounty at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. The tournament drew 1,807 unique players generating a prize pool of $2,439,450 with first place walking away with $253,933.
Play began with players busting left and right with non-stop action as only 272 remain from this enormous field. Play ended after the bubble had burst on hand number four of the hand-for-hand process, meaning all 272 players returning for Day 2 action will walk away with a minimum of $1,414 on top of each bounty that they accumulated. For each knock-out that took place, the winning player took the busted player's bounty chip, worth $500.
At the end of Day Ignacio Molina is at the top as he bagged 624,500 chips but he is followed closley by [Removed:124] (576,500), Baitai Li 506,000, and Benjamin Chalot (505,000). Other stacks well over the chip average include Walter Fisher (499,500) David Thomas (475,500), Nacho Barbero (444,000). Asi Moshe (346,000), David Wells (322,000), Nikita Luther (267,500), Ronni Borg (264,500), and Martijn Gerrits (237,500).
The $1,500 bounty tournament always seems to bring out the best of the best and some notable bracelet winners who made it to Day 2 looking to add to their collection include Phil Ivey, Barry Greenstein, Loni Harwood, and Steven Wolansky.
This star-studded field saw some of the worlds greatest players fall short of Day 2 and some of those players include 2018 Player Of The Year Shaun Deeb, recent bracelet winner Joseph Cheong, 2018 Main Event Runner Up Tony Miles, David Peters and Ben Yu.
All 272 remaining players have locked up at least $1,414, not taking the accumulated bounties into consideration, but they all have their sights on the top prize and whoever is the last person standing will take home $253,933 for first place, plus all the bounties they've collected along the way and a coveted WSOP gold bracelet.
Day 2 will have a 12:00 p.m. restart on Thursday with action picking up on Level 16 where the small blind will be 2,500 and the big blind 5,000 along with a 5,000 big blind ante. Blind levels will be 60-minutes long and players will receive a 15-minute break after every two levels along with a 60-minute dinner break at the end of level six.
Stay tuned here as the PokerNews live reporting team will be here to bring you all of the action as the day unfolds.
Andrew Cooper moved all in for 46,500 sitting in the big blind. Sitting directly to his left was Steven Wolansky who made the call after careful consideration. 
and Cooper had one card left to get a double up. 
. After careful consideration, he tossed in his bounty chip for the call.
and Andriamahefa collected another bounty and a healthy pot.
and he was called by Vitalijs Zavorotnijs.
and he was eliminated from the tournament.
but the 
