Thursday, June 2, 2016 12:30 AM Local Time
Spencer Bennett Leads 23 Players into Day 2
End of Day 1 chip leader Spencer Barrett
Day 1 of the WSOP Casino Employee Event is in the books. A field of 731 entries came to try their hand at winning the first WSOP gold bracelet of 2016. Only 23 players remain, and Spencer Bennett holds the chip lead with 627,000.
Bennett snuck into the lead over Matthew Tyler after Tyler spent most of the day knocking players out left and right. At one point in the tournament, Tyler had five times the average chip stack and seemed to be cruising to the lead. However, he kept getting hands and attempting to bust players with much less success than before.
With 25 left, Eric Stack (178,000) earned a double off Tyler when Tyler opened the button to 22,000 and Stack shoved 100,000 more. Stack had against the of Tyler. Stack spiked a king on the river to double and leave Tyler with only 11 big blinds. He ended the day with 91,000.
Kerry Craigie finished the day in second place and will be rocking a stack of 323,000 entering Day 2. Nicholas Swilinski (310,000), Tanja Vujanic (195,000), Amanda Wheeler (182,000) round out the top five. With Allison Arvey sitting on 164,00, that puts the four remaining female players in the top third of the field.
Some players who made the money but failed to survive to the day. Notables among the 110 players who cashed in this event include WSOP staffer Simone Ricci (106th), Jason Stern (60th), former WSOP Dealer of the Year Shaun Harris (56th), last year's Casino Employee Champ Brandon Barnette (55th), and 2007 Casino Employee Champ Eric Narciso (36th). A complete list of results so far can be found under the Results Tab.
The seat draw for Day 2 can be found in the Reports Tab.
The remaining players will return tomorrow at noon and will play down to a winner. Stay tuned to WSOP.com for updates throughout the day as the players compete for the first WSOP gold bracelet of the summer.