Day 1b Ends With Alex Cordero Standing Tall as Chip Leader
After eight full levels and part of a ninth, Day 1b of Event 59: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em is in the books. The day began with 2,880 players and when all the dust settled, just 471 remained with Alex Cordero as your current chip leader (100,475).
Jake Cody amassed the second-biggest Day 1b stack (77,600). Cody chipped up late in the day and scored a big pot after running aces into an opponent's 
all-in preflop. Others building big stacks on Thursday included Warren Russell (68,625), Owen Crowe (67,000), Jed Friedman (58,675), and Jeremy Paglieri (58,300).
Now that both Day 1's are complete, we were able to obtain the final registrant and prizepool information. A grand total of 4,620 players entered, generating a prizepool of $4,158,000. First place will receive $654,797 — not too shabby.
Some notables who took to the felt today, but fell short and busted before the day's end include Angel Guillen, Kevin Saul, Faraz Jaka, Mickey Petersen, Dennis Phillips, J.C. Tran, Lauren Kling, Joe Cada and Andy Frankenberger — who fell victim to one of poker's most brutal coolers.
Other more fortunate players who bagged some chips and will return tomorrow for Day 2 include Cherish Andrews (38,700), Ben Yu (36,750), Nam Le (34,000), Sam Grizzle (26,425), Jeff Madsen (24,925), and Joe Serock (19,750), and Amanda Leatherman (11,075).
Play is set to resume tomorrow at 1:00 PM PST, where the Day 1a and Day 1b fields will merge and play out ten levels. Be sure to stick with us here at PokerNews as we burst the money bubble and work our way toward the final table!
Until then — goodnight from Vegas!