Day 1a Concludes
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The list of notables who came out to play is a veritable who's-who of the poker world. Gavin Smith, Bill Edler, Huck Seed, Brock Parker, Erik Seidel, Jeff Madsen, Jonathan Little... the list goes on and on. The Team PokerStars Pros were well-represented as well with the likes of Greg Raymer, Chris Moneymaker, Daniel Negreanu, Dennis Phillips, Barry Greenstein, Noah Boeken, Jason Mercier, and EPT found John Duthie were all among the sponsored Pros who chose the first flight as their opening day. Most of them were rewarded for that choice. Phillips, Negreanu, and Greenstein all had stellar days to finish up with several times their starting chip stacks.
The top of the leaderboard was a cluster of uncertainty for the first six levels, but one man would break out from the field as the day wound down. Dragging monster pot after monster pot, Wayne Bentley surged past the field in the late stages to stuff his chip bag with 329,500 technicolor checks. That puts him miles out in front of his nearest chaser, but the tournament will not be won on the first day.
Those who survived will take the day off tomorrow as we welcome a new set of faces to the Imperial Ballroom. They'll be back at noon on Thursday for the combined Day 2.
So that's it for this opening day. We, unfortunately, don't get a day off like these slackers. We'll be back tomorrow at noon to pick up the action with Day 1b. All expectations are for a packed house tomorrow as we try to cram over 1,400 players into this event. Until then, goodnight from paradise. Paradise Island, that is.