With 336,700 chips, about 3.5 times the average, noted pro player Bill Gazes will lead the field going into the second day of the championship event at the WSOP Circuit tour at Harrah's Resort Atlantic City. Gazes had been the center of attraction after he was moved to the feature table early on day one, where he steadily built his stacks. Interestingly, while Gazes has only one win, in an Omaha/8 event at the Bicycle Casino, he has amassed over $2 million in total tournament cashes.
This event drew 179 players for a prize pool of $867,000. Eighteen places will be paid with the winner receiving $280,940 plus a $10,000 seat into the 2009 WSOP main event.
Day one was scheduled to end at 2 a.m. or when the field got down to 36 players. It was the latter, and play ceased at 1:15 a.m. with blinds of 1,500-3,000, 500 antes and 17 minutes left on the clock. The remaining players will return at 2 p.m. on day two to work down to the final table of nine.
Among the entrants were two former Harrah's AC main event winners: defending champion John Racener and 2006 winner Rick Rossetti, but neither got very far today.
Neither did another player, football legend and bad boy Jim McMahon, the former NFL all-pro quarterback and two-time Super Bowl champion. The lone woman still in action is Joanne Monteavaro, whose cashes include $50,000 for finishing second after a three-way deal at the World Poker Finals at Mashantucket. She has 177,300 chips.
Here are the chip counts:
NAME CHIPS TABLE SEAT HOMETOWN
Andrew Lee 63,200 1 1 Ocean Township, NJ
Bill Gazes 336,700 1 2 New York, NY
Sirous Jamshidi 237,00 1 3 Philadelphia, PN
Allen Bari 240,000 1 4 West Orange, NJ
Kyle 'kwob20' Bowker 138,100 1 5 Walton, NY
Brock Parker 62,000 1 6 Silver Spring, MD
Dan Shak 31,200 1 7 Bryn Mawr, PN
Eugene Fouksman 15,1000 1 8 Manalapan, NJ
Nikos Alafogiannis 10,8900 1 9 Toronto, ON
Kevin Marcotte 88,800 12 1 Mason, OH
Michael A. Walls 76,400 12 3 Newark, NJ
Steve 'gboro780' Gross 58,000 12 4
Matt Matros 17,1500 12 5 Brooklyn, NY
Sam Bernstein 71,200 12 6 Englewood, NJ
Joanne Monteavaro 177,300 12 7 Bronx, NY
Dave Cubeta 49,800 12 9 Falls Church, VA
Tim 'ttwist' Kelly 74,400 13 1 Toronto, ON
Chris Reslock 184,200 13 2 Atlantic City, NJ
Brent Roberts 85,100 13 3
Michael Dean McCray 6,3300 13 5 Dinwiddie, VA
Adam Lippert 38,900 13 7
Jeffrey Wan 108,900 13 8 Staten Island, NY
Mike Leah 274,400 13 9 Toronto, ON
Jared Jaffee 107,000 24 1 Staten Island, NY
Robert McLaughlin 58,700 24 2 Washington D.C.
Rafael A. Camejo 86,900 24 3 Haverhill, MA
John Spadavecchia 47,300 24 4 Lighthouse Point, FL
Adam Green 101,100 24 5 New York, NY
Phillip Reed 80,000 24 6 Darien, CT
Vincent Spadavecchia 36,500 24 7 Boca Raton, FL
Scott Zakheim 70,600 24 8 Davie, FL
Dwyte Pilgrim 50,500 24 9 Brooklyn, NY
Chau Minh Nguyen 110,700
Charles Furey 112,000 Bridgewater, NJ
Bruce Yamron 54,300
Payouts:
1. $280,040
2. $147,707
3. $86,710
4. $69,368
5. $52,026
6. $43,355
7. $34,684
8. $26,013
9. $17,341
10. $13,874
11. $13,874
12. $13,874
13. $12,139
14. $12,139
15. $12,139
16. $10,405
17. $10,405
18. $10,405