Obara Leads Way; Norton Chasing Second Bracelet in a Week

Tyler Foran

A total of 997 entrants played in Event #51: $3,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold��em, creating a prize pool of $2,661,990 and a first-place prize of $474,102. Only 41 hopefuls remain to take home a World Series of Poker Gold Bracelet.

Leading the way is Jun Obara who bagged 3,010,000 chips on Day 1. Obara gradually built the chips throughout the day including a big pot early in the day when he made aces full against two opponents and got a full triple up. Bagging second is chips was Rostyslav Sabishchenko with a total of 2,020,000. However, not far behind them is Chad Norton who bagged 1,090,000. Norton won his first WSOP gold bracelet this week after taking down Event #46: No-Limit Hold'em Deepstack and earning himself $214,830 and will be looking to repeat.

Many other bracelet winners are still in the mix, including Brian Rast (1,665,000), Manig Loeser (1,375,000), Sejin Park (920,000), Georgios Sotiropoulos (770,000) and Alan Sternberg (505,000).

Other notables still chasing the victory include, John Gallaher, (1,700,000), Uri Reichenstein, (1,660,000), and Romain Lewis (1,335,000).

The action is set to kick off at 2 p.m. at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in the Amazon Gold section. The blinds will return at 15,000/30,000/30,000. Levels will be 30-minutes each and there will be a 15-minute break after every four levels. Play will continue until a champion is crowned.