Day 1A of the Main Event is in the books at the Hammond Horseshoe, and Kevin Davis leads the field with 689,500 in chips. A total of 765 players started the day, and only 98 survived the day’s 17 levels. The tournament needs a total of 1,334 entries to meet the $2,000,000 guarantee, which means only 569 players need to enter Saturday’s Day 1B in order to surpass the guarantee.Davis built much of his chip lead in a big all-in confrontation. He held against on an ace-high flop. The pot was worth over a quarter-million in chips, and it put Davis decisively in the lead. After the hand, he had almost twice as much as the second-place player. Davis already has two rings to his name. He won events at the Southern Indiana Circuit stop in 2008 and 2011.
Kevin Eyster made a valiant effort to catch Davis, but ended the day second in chips with 500,500. Kevin Meeuson, who won Event #4 here at Hammond, finished the day with 118,000 in chips. Two-time ring winner John Holley finished the day with 245,500, and Kenny Nguyen, who finished in the top ten in two preliminary events at this Circuit stop, ended the day with 303,000.
Other notables surviving the day include Sam Panzica, Kyle Julius, Joseph Elpayaa, and Nachman Berlin.Several WSOP bracelet winners were in the field today, including Nick Jivkov, Aaron Steury, Chris Tryba, and Owais Ahmed. Also playing today was T.J. Cloutier, whose six bracelets is more than the rest of the field combined. However, none of the bracelet winners made it to the end of the day. They were joined on the rail by several successful tournament regulars, including Isaac Baron, Chad Brown, Aaron Massey, Ralph Massey, Joe Kuether, Amanda Musumeci, and six-time WSOP Circuit ring winner Ari Engel.
Josh Williams, the defending champion of this event, did not survive to the end of the day. Neither did 2011 champion Bob Chow.
Day 1B will be held on Saturday, and play will match today’s 17 levels. Registration will be open until the end of Level 12. The remaining players from both Day 1A and Day 1B will return on Sunday for Day 2. Unlike the Main Events at many WSOP Circuit stops, players will not be permitted to late register at the beginning of Sunday’s Day 2.
Here are the top ten chip counts after Day 1A. A complete list of chip counts is available in the reports tab.
1. Kevin Davis 689,500 2. Kevin Eyster 500,500 3. Steven Hensley 492,000 4. Riely Joosten 461,500 5. Chris Wiemers 423,000 6. James Nettnin 414,500 7. Derek Damanes 382,000 8. Millard Hale 367,500 9. Zaed Shamoon 305,500 10. Kenny Nguyen 305,000