Day 1 in the Bag; Age Spets Crushing
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Another action-packed day in the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino for the 2011 World Series of Poker has come to a close with Event #43: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em and the remaining players bagging and tagging for the night.
Not only was today one of the final $1,500 events for the series, but with the starting day also falling on a Saturday, many were expecting a huge starting field. Both the Amazon and Pavilion rooms, along with the hallways that filtered people throughout the building, were jam-packed with people as eventually 2,857 players took to the felt spread across multiple sections in opposing rooms.
From previous bracelet holders, online phenoms and complete amateurs, nearly every man and their dog took their seat to battle through ten levels of poker. Those players would form a prizepool of $3,856,950 with the top 297 players all receiving some extra padding in their wallets or purses, but everyone would have their sights set on the $675,117 first prize, coveted gold bracelet and title of champion.
Many players fell to the rail as everyone jostled for a place high on the chip leaderboard, but as the Pavilion room slowly clears out, it is Norway's Age Spets leading the charge with an amassed 119,900 in chips. With an Aussie Millions title and three WSOP cashes to his name, Spets will be one to chase down tomorrow, and those in contention include Nicholas Grippo (110,900) and Greg Darby (105,100).
Females Maria Ho (39,600), Kathy Liebert (30,300) and Erica Schoenberg (20,800), along with bracelet winners Joe Cada, Gavin Griffin, David Baker, Thomas Keller and James Mackey all are still within a shot as roughly 400 players return tomorrow to battle it out on day two.
The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will again be on the felt tomorrow providing continuous live coverage as we aim - but will unlikely achieve - to play down till a final table of nine. Make sure to stay logged onto PokerNews.com from 2:30 p.m. PDT as provide all the live updates from the 2011 World Series of Poker and Day Two of Event #43: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em.