BIG NAMES WITH BIG STACKS AT THE BIKE MAIN EVENT
California knows how to party, if The Bicycle Casino is any indication. The World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit Main Event at the Bike shattered last year’s field size of 549 entries as more than 700 players turned up Saturday to play in the $1,500 + $175 buy-in event. And registration isn’t even closed yet. Many players can show up before noon tomorrow when Day 2 play resumes and register if they have not fired two bullets in the event already.

It was clear the event was going to be a big one when Flight A got underway at noon on Saturday and quickly climbed to 400 players before the first break. Not only was the crowd large, it was stacked. Multi-million dollar poker earners like Kathy Liebert, Miami John Cernuto, Eric Baldwin, Allen Cunningham, Cornel Cimpan, Nam Le, Joe Tehan, and 2006 WSOP Player of the Year Jeff Madsen.

The field also featured some Circuit legends, including six-time winner Alexandru Masek and five-time winner Kyle Cartwright. Both busted Day 1A and had to re-enter on Day 1B later Saturday afternoon. The second attempt did not work out as planned for Masek, as he busted a second time. Cartwright, meanwhile, still has a chance to tie Masek’s newly-set ring record, as he bagged up an above average stack of 80,000.

Joining Masek on the rail over the course of the two Day 1 flights were Tripp Kirk, John Phan, Bruce Buffer, Jeff Madsen, Jason Lee, Matt Affleck, Kathy Liebert, Cornel Cimpan, and WSOP livestream commentator David Tuchman.

Of the 700 or so entries who played on Saturday, 221 survived the day. The chip leader of that group is a guy familiar with how to succeed in a Circuit Main Event. Two months ago, Derrick Yamada finished runner-up to Cary Marshall in the Harveys Lake Tahoe Main Event. He has a good shot at another deep run, as he ended Day 1 play with 211,300. The only other player to top the 200,000 mark is Toan Nguyen.

The top ten is populated with several notables including Eric Cloutier (173,000), Joe Tehan (148,300), and Eric Baldwin (146,000). They will be back in action at 12pm on Sunday for another day of Main Event action, all of which will be covered on the WSOP Live Updates page and the WSOP Circuit Blog.

Here is a look at the unofficial top ten heading into Day 2. A full list of chip counts and seat assignments is available on The Bicycle Casino's website:

1. Derrick Yamada – 211,300
2. Toan Nguyen – 203,300
3. Eric Cloutier – 173,000
4. Noah Bronstein – 167,700
5. John Hulett – 161,600
6. Rupesh Pattni – 160,700
7. Jason Bundy – 160,600
8. Joe Tehan – 148,300
9. Dien Le – 148,200
10. Steve Firestone – 145,000