button in SafariBig Field in First Session of $5M GTD NLH Tournament
One of the biggest events of the summer kicked off at the Wynn Summer Classic on Thursday. The tournament we're speaking of is the $3,500 No-Limit Hold'em, which guarantees at least $5 million in the prize pool.
There are four Day 1 starting flights in the one, one per day. Day 1b is scheduled to begin at noon PT today. One completed flight in the books (1a) yesterday and it's clear this is going to end up with a large field.
Day 1a had 196 entrants, 30 of whom moved on to Day 2, which takes place June 15 at Wynn Las Vegas. No one left the casino last night feeling better about their performance than Guillermo Sanchez Otero, who bagged the chip lead at 1,041,000.
Not only did Otero finish the session with the most chips, he did so in convincing fashion. There's a wide gap between Otero and the second-largest stack, Daniel Maor, who ended play with a healthy stack of 616,000 chips. Talented pro Thomas Muehloecker is also off to a strong start to the tournament with 472,000 chips.
Top 10 Day 1a Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guillermo Sanchez Otero | 1,041,000 |
| 2 | Daniel Maor | 616,000 |
| 3 | Julian Blebea | 540,000 |
| 4 | Stephen McCulloch | 537,000 |
| 5 | Thomas Muehloecker | 472,000 |
| 6 | Frederick Salari | 471,000 |
| 7 | Joshua Mammen | 359,000 |
| 8 | Mitchell Garshofsky | 344,000 |
| 9 | Nazar Buhaiov | 284,000 |
| 10 | Alexandre Reard | 205,000 |