button in SafariSean Winter Clips Daniel Negreanu For the Chip Lead on Day 1 of Event #55: $50,000 High Roller Pot-Limit Omaha
Sean Winter’s quest to remove his name from the unenviable list of best players without a bracelet got off to a good start today on Day 1 of Event #55: $50,000 High Roller Pot-Limit Omaha.
Winter edged out Daniel Negreanu for the chip lead, with less than two big blinds separating them, to end up on top of the 30 players who will return tomorrow at 1 p.m. local time. Winter’s day included flopping a full house in a three-way all in, earning himself a double-up off Tom Vogelsang while sending Stephen Chidwick to the rail.
Winter bagged up 1,775,000, with Negreanu just 25,000 behind him. Negreanu spiked the nut-flush to bust $25,000 High Roller runner-up Levon Khachatryan on his way to 1,750,000 to end the night.
Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sean Winter | United States | 1,775,000 | 118 |
| 2 | Daniel Negreanu | Canada | 1,750,000 | 117 |
| 3 | David Benyamine | France | 1,660,000 | 111 |
| 4 | Carlo van Ravenswoud | Netherlands | 1,350,000 | 90 |
| 5 | Jason Koon | United States | 1,330,000 | 89 |
| 6 | Dylan Weisman | United States | 1,320,000 | 88 |
| 7 | Yuri Dzivielevski | Brazil | 1,275,000 | 85 |
| 8 | Sean Rafael | United States | 1,135,000 | 76 |
| 9 | Venkat Chivukula | United States | 1,115,000 | 74 |
| 10 | Barrett Threadgill | United States | 1,105,000 | 74 |
David Benyamine (1,660,000), Carlo van Ravenswoud (1,350,000), and Jason Koon (1,330,000) round out the top five. Koon busted early in the day, but his second bullet included a flurry of eliminations, including spiking the nut-flush to take out Alex Foxen, making a set of kings against Jeremy Trojand, and then finally hitting the nut-flush yet again to bust Youness Barakat.
Further down the leaderboard are Dylan Weisman (1,320,000), Yuri Dzivielevski (1,275,000), Robert Cowen (955,000), Santhosh Suvarna (855,000), Joao Simao (760,000), Ka Kwan Lau (745,000), and Jeremy Ausmus (745,000). Eelis Parssinen jumped right into this event after winning his second WSOP bracelet in the $25K High Roller and bagged up 605,000, while Jared Bleznick (420,000), Bryce Yockey (300,000), and Chance Kornuth (215,000) also survived the day.
Current Player of the Year points leader Foxen busted all three of his allowed bullets today, while Chidwick busted twice. Jesse Lonis and UFC veteran Colby Covington were also among those sent to the rail over the course of Day 1.
A total of 81 players joined the field on Day 1, but that number should increase as late registration remains open until the start of play tomorrow. The action on Day 2 picks up on Level 13 with blinds of 10,000/15,000 and a 15,000 big blind ante. Levels will be extended to 60 minutes from this point on.
PokerNews will be back tomorrow to follow all the action and provide live updates from one of the elite fields on the WSOP calendar.