Spinella Builds Massive Stack to Lead as Money Bubble Looms
Day 1 of Event #10: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em / Six Handed is in the books after another massive turnout of players came out to action at the Rio. Last year's field was a whopping 1,663 entrants, but this year destroyed that with 1,920 players registering for this event. A larger field size means more money and this year the winner of this event will take home a whopping $544,388 along with the coveted World Series of Poker gold bracelet.
When play began at noon, players were spread out across tables all over the Rio Convention Center. There were tables in all sections of the Rio Pavilion, taking over both the cash game and satellite sections for the time being. The Amazon Room also had a section that contained a couple hundred players in this event. Needless to say, it was jam packed with poker from wall to wall as far as the eye could see.
Some of the notables we were able to spot throughout the day included Angel Guillen, Liv Boeree, Vanessa Selbst, David Williams, Lex Veldhuis and Richard Toth — all of Team PokerStars Pro. Unfortunately for the squad, that crew of players didn't make it too far in this event and hit the rail. John Racener, Shawn Buchanan, Andy Black, Lauren Kling, Faraz Jaka, Chino Rheem, Galen Hall, Greg Raymer, Tom Dwan, Antonio Esfandiari and Andrew Lichtenberger were some of the pros who joined them on the rail.
Not every tournament is made up of pros though, even though they might have a lot of money and be a famous face. Actor and comedian Brad Garrett fits that bill and even though he comes out to play the WSOP every year that he can, still considers himself an amateur player. He was here for most of the day before falling at the end. You can read about his demise here, but Garrett was here long enough for our very own Kristy Arnett to call the clock on him. Check that out in the video below.
Now of course, this is poker and if players are losing chips, others are winning them. A few of the players who bagged up a-whole-lotta chips include Ryan Welch (156,300), Bryan Colin (128,100), Anders Taylor (117,000), Zachary Clark (105,700) and Alexander Wice (87,200). Those numbers are impressive, especially considering that every player began the day with just a measeley 4,500 in chips, but the chip leader moving into Day 2 is Anthony Spinella. He bagged up a truck load worth 223,000. That's by far the largest stack in the room after Day 1 and we'll see it all in action starting Tuesday at 2:30 PM PT in the Amazon Room.
Day 2 will begin with under 200 players left in the field. The board read 188 at the end of the day, but that could be off one or two places. With 180 places getting paid, only a handful of players returning tomorrow won't make the money. Hopefully we'll see you right back here to follow along with all the action right here on PokerNews.