Joshua Faris raised to 6,500 under the gun and Daniel Negreanu three-bet to 28,500 in the small blind. Faris called and they both stood pat.
Negreanu checked over to Faris who quickly checked back. "I have two pair. Two pair. Two pair," Negreanu kept repeating in an exaggerated accent. Faris could only laugh at Negreanu's wine-filled antics as he showed a 9-7 to win the pot.
Scott Seiver and Daniel Negreanu took full advantage of their third bullets to climb near the top of the leaderboard after Day 1 of Event #30: $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Single Draw.
Seiver, who won his third bracelet of the summer in this event last year, busted twice, both times to Alex Livingston, early in the day but made the most of his third attempt. The defending champion bagged up 304,000 which puts him in second place among 79 players who survived the day.
He’s trailing only six-time bracelet winner Nick Schulman, who ended the day atop the leaderboard with 322,500. Alex Foxen (300,500), Bradley Jansen (293,500), and Darren Elias (287,500) round out the top five.
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Nick Schulman
United States
322,500
108
2
Scott Seiver
United States
304,000
101
3
Alex Foxen
United States
300,500
100
4
Bradley Jansen
United States
293,500
98
5
Darren Elias
United States
287,500
96
6
Dan Smith
United States
276,500
92
7
Daniel Negreanu
Canada
273,500
91
8
Robert Wells
United Kingdom
253,500
85
9
Brian Breck
United States
247,000
82
10
Dario Alioto
Italy
242,000
81
Negreanu also burned through two early bullets but returned with a bottle of wine and some good luck. Negreanu earned a massive double up off Chance Kornuth when he made an 8-5, ending Day 1 with 273,500. Other top stacks include Brian Rast (198,000), Chad Eveslage (190,000), Matthew Schreiber (164,000), James Obst (159,000), and Patrick Leonard (152,000).
Daniel Negreanu
Further down the leaderboard are Shaun Deeb (142,000), Huck Seed (136,500), and Ben Lamb (77,000). Jason Mercier waited until nearly the end of the night before jumping into the field but managed to only bag a short stack of 44,500, as did Brad Owen (44,000) and Jean-Robert Bellande (42,500). Players who didn't make it through the day included 2023 champion Chris Brewer, Ryan Riess, Livingston, Yuri Dzivielevski, $1,500 champion Brad Ruben, John Hennigan, and Phil Hellmuth.
A massive field of 189 players entered over the course of 10 60-minute levels, already surpassing last year’s field. The 79 remaining players return on Monday at 1 p.m. local time for Day 2. Late registration remains open for the first level of the day, with players allowed two reentries, so there is a chance for the field to grow substantially larger by the time the prize pool is announced. The action picks up on Level 11 with blinds of 1,500/3,000 and a 4,500 ante.
Stay tuned as PokerNews returns tomorrow to provide live updates throughout the day.
