Vijaya Madala Bags Lead on Day 1 of High Roller
The first day of Event #14: $2,200 High Roller saw a total of 164 entry slips sold and by night's end only 55 remained at the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino with Vijaya Madala leading the way.
Madala hovered near the top for the first half of the day and it was not until after dinner break that he really kicked it into high gear, running over his table en route to bagging the lead here on Day 1 of the high roller, finishing the day with 205,000.
Closest behind Madala on the leaderboard is Jasthi Kumar who found 197,000 at the end of twelve levels. Rounding out the top five are Martin Zamani (191,000), Canada's Consantinos Psallidas (190,500), and WSOP bracelet winner Ankush Mandavia (190,000).
Some notable players to book their ticket onto Day 2 include Ralph Wong (162,500), Aaron Massey (150,500), Michael Dyer (141,500), Alex Rocha (130,500), Nick Pupillo (115,500), Michael Rossitto (81,500), Barry Hutter (60,500), Alex Livingston (57,000), and defending champion Ali Imsirovic (25,500).
The 55 survivors from today will most likely not be the number headed into the final day as any player without a chip has until the start of play tomorrow to take advantage of the late registration period. All players will be returning at 2 p.m. local time to battle it down to a winner, taking down the first-place money along with a shiny new WSOP Circuit ring.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be bringing all of the coverage throughout the remainder of the event, so stay tuned as all of the action unfolds.