Nearly 500 Show Up for Day 1 of $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em; Bonomo, Bicknell and Kuo Near the Top
Nearly 500 players registered for Day 1 of Event #20: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em, filling up the entirety of the Amazon purple section over the course of the day. By the end of the night, only 170 of them remained. Chipleader after the first day of play was Dan Colpoys with 403,000. Colpoys' had an amazing last ten minutes of the day to bag up the chip lead
In a five-bet pot that started rather innocuous with a few limps, Colpoys eventually got it all in against Vojetch Ruzicka. Colpoys was holding aces against Ruzicka's kings and held up to send the former November Niner to the rail with just a few minutes left on the clock. Before the night ended, Colpoys sent another player to the rail with aces against queens and bagged up a substantial chip lead just like that.
Players played a total of ten 60-minute levels on Day 1 and many notables fell along the way. Some of the players who did not make it through to Day 2 included Mike Matusow, Robert Mizrachi, Joseph Cheong, Alex Foxen, Daniel Negreanu, Shaun Deeb, Maria Ho, Christian Harder and Jerry Wong.
Wong was one of the last to fall towards the end of the night and he was eliminated by Kitty Kuo in a big pot. In the hand, Wong three-bet from the big blind and Kuo called from the small blind. Kuo got it all in with an open-ended straight draw and Wong called with an overpair. Kuo rivered her straight to take down the massive pot, making her one of the biggest stacks in the room with 144,100.
Along with Kuo, some of the other players returning for Day 2 include the likes of Justin Bonomo and Kristen Bicknell, who both hold a top ten spot after Day 1. Erik Seidel, Scott Blumstein, Kristen Bicknell, Anthony Spinella, Olivier Busquet, Pete Chen, Kenny Hallaert, Seth Davies, Cliff Josephy, Greg Merson, David Pham and Kathy Liebert were among the other notables that advanced.
Liebert and Pham tangled for much of the day after Liebert was moved to Pham's direct left. In one massive pot, Liebert and Pham flipped for nearly 100,000 chips with Pham holding ace-king and Liebert holding queens. Liebert's queens held up and she was able to ride on that stack for the rest of the day to find a bag.
Action will resume at 2 p.m. local time on Saturday, June 9, where players will return to play another ten 60-minute levels with 15-minute breaks every two levels. Blinds will resume at 600/1,200 with an ante of 1,200. Registration will remain open until the start of Day 2, which means players still have some time to join the field. The prize pool and payouts will be announced on Day 2 shortly after late registration has closed. PokerNews will be back with all the action, so be sure to check back in.
