The Money Bubble Looms As Day 1 of Event #55: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Ends
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Event #55: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em started rather slow, with nearly half the entrants posted on the board taking at least half a level to take their seats.
As the day wore on, more and more turned up leading to a grand total of 2,396 entrants by the time registration closed. What that meant is a $3,234,600 prize pool was created with some $582,321 and a shiny World Series of Poker gold bracelet reserved for the winner. In all, 243 players will get paid and that number was almost reached by the time they played 11 levels.
In the end, they did get down to 268 players, meaning the money bubble should burst soon after the 1 p.m. restart Sunday.
While a number of players picked up steam and built big stacks in the late levels, most seem to dip as the day did, leading to a flurry of activity in the last half of the last level of the night to decide who the chip leader was.
It literally came down to the last hand of the night, but it appeared Canadian Michael Malm grabbed that lead over names like Zo Karim, Aaron Massey and Brandon Cantu.
No matter how you slice it, this tournament is tight at the top and it should take the good part of the day Sunday to separate the wheat from the chaff.
They will pay another ten levels or down to a final table of nine then and as always, the PokerNews Live Reporting team will endeavor to follow all the action as it happens. Of course, you're all welcome to come along for the ride as well.