button in SafariPokerNews' Brett Slezak Among the Leaders in the Industry Employees Event
Event #3: $500 Industry Employees No-Limit Hold'em has completed its Day 1, with 136 of the 906 starters punching their Day 2 tickets. Among the overnight leaders is one of PokerNews' own, Brett Slezak.
Most people will know Slezak from his PokerNews live reporting duties, but the Omaha native sometimes puts down his notepad and pen and spends some time at the right side of the table.
Last year, Slezak was a runner-up in a $250 Daily Deepstacks tournament at the WSOP, which earned him $14,587. In March 2026, he finished fifth in the $1,100 MSPT Riverside Main Event for a career-best $54,810. Now he has a realistic chance of becoming a WSOP bracelet holder because he returns for Day 2 with 383,000 chips (64 big blinds), enough for 11th place at the restart.
Event #3: $500 Industry Employees Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jerome Neppl | United States | 758,000 | 126 |
| 2 | Yutaka Morishima | United States | 517,000 | 86 |
| 3 | Ronan Woolman | United States | 491,000 | 82 |
| 4 | Skyler Halama | United States | 489,000 | 82 |
| 5 | Brian Baron | United States | 487,000 | 81 |
| 6 | Larry Serebryany | United States | 482,000 | 80 |
| 7 | Michael Schlittler | United States | 460,000 | 77 |
| 8 | Timothy Dugan | United States | 457,000 | 76 |
| 9 | Bobby Sanchez | United States | 404,000 | 67 |
| 10 | Lennart Hennig | Germany | 394,000 | 66 |
Albuquerque's Jerome Neppl is the overnight chip leader, courtesy of bagging and tagging 758,000 chips at the close of play. Neppl holds a sizable lead over Yutaka Morishima (517,000) and Ronan Woolman (491,000) going into the second and final day's play. Woolman cashed in this event in 2021; he needs a 53rd-place finish to better that result.
A mention must also go to Tyler Boyer (84,000), another PokerNews employee. Boyer has a little more work to do when play resumes on Day 2, as he sits down 84th in chips.
Day 2 kicks off at 12:00 p.m. local time on May 28 and continues until a champion emerges. Whoever that champion is, they will collect $64,083 and the first gold bracelet of the 2026 World Series of Poker (WSOP).