Kelly Minkin heads into Day 2 of the Bike main event with the chip lead after finishing Day 1A with 428,000
December 10, 2017 (Los Angeles, CA) - The two starting days of the $1,675 no-limit texas hold’em main event at the Bicycle Hotel and Casino are in the books and Kelly Minkin leads the 133 players remaining coming back for Day 2.
Minkin bagged up the Day 1A chip lead to take the overall chip lead into Monday. She finished her respective flight with 428,000 and holds a sizable lead over the rest of the field. Anil Jivani (363,000), Kevin Gerhart (300,000), Scott Stewart (300,000) and Yotam Shmuelov (283,500) round out the top five chip counts. Gerhart and Stewart finished tied atop the Day 1B chip counts and will start Day 2 tied for third in chips.
There were 294 entries in Day 1A and 379 in Day 1B, which brought the field size to 673 entries thus far. There were 60 players that made it through Day 1A and 73 players survived Day 1B, which gave 133 players a spot in the Day 2 field.
Registration is still open, however, and players have an option to buy-in before the start of Day 2. When cards get back in the air at noon on Monday, the field size and prizepool will be finalized.
Other notables to survive a starting flight and still in the hunt for the ring, a six-figure payout and a free seat into the 2018 Global Casino Championship include Pat Lyons, Jared Griener, Edward Liu, Jeffrey Trudeau, Bob Mather, Trung Pham, Anthony Marquez, Jared Jaffee, Nichoel Jurgens, Sal DiCarlo and Sohale Khalili. Lady Luck wasn’t so kind to everybody though.
There were plenty of talented players that couldn’t put chips in a bag. Phil Laak, Nipun Java, Sean Yu, Nikhil Gera, Daniel Strelitz, Valentin Vornicu, Alex Massman, Phong ‘Turbo’ Nguyen, Owen Crowe, Jose Montes, Eddy Sabat, David Pham, Mohsin Charania and Ryan Jones were among the players who will need to register before the start of Monday if they want to fire one last bullet at the main event.
Last year, there were 24 players who exercised their option to register on Day 2. A similar number this year would bring the field to just shy of 700 players and around a $1 million prizepool.
Top 10 Chip Counts:
- Kelly Minkin – 428,000
- Anil Jivani – 363,000
- Kevin Gerhart – 300,000
- Scott Stewart – 300,000
- Yotam Shmuelov – 283,500
- Vuong Do – 278,000
- Jeff Banghart – 274,500
- Tom Pham – 243,000
- Jordyn Miller – 208,000
- Chuanhao Zhang – 204,000
Complete Chip Counts
The schedule for Monday will be to play 10, 60-minute levels before bagging and tagging chips for the night. WSOP.com will have complete coverage and live updates as the field plays into the money and towards a final table.
Relive the Day 1 action with the live updates