The first day of the $5,300 High Roller at PokerStars North American Poker Tour Las Vegas has come to an end and Anthony Hu is the chip leader after ten levels of play.
The opening frame of this three-day tournament drew 127 entries, from which 55 players will return for Day 2. The prize pool sits at $615,950 with late registration still open until the beginning of Day 2.
Hu was among the leaders for most of the day and he was followed in second by Canada’s Dongwoo Ko and in third by Spain’s Juan Garcia Reverte. Jesse Lonis and David Stamm rounded out the top five with the same stack of 245,000.
Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anthony Hu | United States | 298,000 |
| 2 | Dongwoo Ko | Canada | 280,500 |
| 3 | Juan Garcia Reverte | Spain | 249,000 |
| 4 | Jesse Lonis | United States | 245,000 |
| 5 | David Stamm | United States | 245,000 |
| 6 | Samuel Laskowitz | United States | 242,000 |
| 7 | Sundiata Devore | United States | 214,000 |
| 8 | Michael Jozoff | United States | 175,500 |
| 9 | Alexander Jesionek | Germany | 155,000 |
| 10 | Shannon Shorr | United States | 152,500 |
Day 1 Highlights
Day 1 started with 21 players in their seats, among them Stamm, Samuel Laskowitz, Michael Wang, and PokerStars ambassador Maria Konnikova. Konnikova held strong all day and she will return with a steady 84,500 on Saturday.
Brendan Ferguson, who qualified for the tournament with a Vegas Poker Pass, was the most active player in the room throughout the opening levels — and it all started with a jam on the first hand. Ferguson shoved the river with the pot sitting at around 2,000, but his opponent wanted nothing to do with it. Despite all of the early activity that temporarily doubled his chip stack, Ferguson failed to turn his free shot into big bucks.
Laskowitz was among the leaders with over 100,000 in Level 4 and he was trailed by early entrants Dylan Linde, Richard Green, Myles Mullaly, Nadya Magnus, and Maureen Bloechlinger, another early qualifier who had a strong day and found some chips later in the evening to bag 92,500 for Day 2.
Hu and Lonis jumped up the leaderboard prior to the dinner break and held down the top spots throughout the remainder of the evening. They were joined by the hard-charging Shorr, who moved above 200,000 in the last level of the evening, and Juan Garcia Reverte. Stamm, Michael Jozoff, and Alexander Jesionek also made late moves that put them within striking distance of the leader.
Other players returning for Day 2 include Lewis Spencer, Princess Love, Ethan "Rampage" Yau, and Masato Yokosawa.
Players will return at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday for Day 2. The tournament staff has adjusted the levels from 60 minutes to 40 minutes for Day 2, and the plan is to play down to a final table of six. Those six players will return on Sunday to play to a winner in final table action that will be live-streamed on PokerStars YouTube.
Be sure to keep it with the PokerNews team all weekend long for live updates from the floor of the NAPT Main Event and the $5,300 NAPT High Roller right here at Resorts World Las Vegas.