Poker Writer Ken Adams Holds Chip Lead in Main Event
After First Day at Harrah's Atlantic City WSOP Circuit

Washington attorney and poker writer Ken Adams went on a four-hand rush as day one of the WSOP Circuit main event at Harrah's Atlantic City ended, and he started day two leading with 153,000 chips. There were still 101 players left when play ended after seven levels. Day two will play down to the final nine.

This event attracted 244 entrants, a small increase over year's turnout of 237. and generated a prize pool of $1,195,600. Players started with 20,000 chips, and played 75-minute levels for day one.

Some of the notables playing in the main event included Robert Williamson III, Irish superstar Andy Black and talk show host Montel Williams. Williams played in the WSOP main event this year and held the chip lead for a few hours on day one before suffering some bad beats. Also in the first day's field was Cyndy Violette, but she went out at the second level when her pocket aces were cracked by a set of kings. Another early victim was Circuit veteran Doug "Rico" Carli who went out at 5 p.m. when his set was beaten by a straight in a 50,000 pot.
 
By dinner break we were down to 191 players with Black in the lead. He was soon overtaken by Rick Rosetti, the defending champion for this event at Harrah's AC.  Both players were close to the lead for most of the day, but Black went out late in the session.
Williams was still hanging on, and would be 15 minutes late showing up for day two.