Addamo and Imsirovic Top the Leaderboard After Day 1 of Event #82: $250,000 Super High Roller No-Limit Hold'em
The opening day of the inaugural Event #82: $250,000 Super High Roller No-Limit Hold'em has drawn to an end after a full 10 levels were completed, leaving just 15 players bagging chips. A total of 25 entries were recorded throughout the day and Michael Addamo has bagged the overall chip lead with 4,965,000.
Addamo already won his third World Series of Poker bracelet earlier this year when he captured the title in Event #38: $50,000 No-Limit Hold'em High Roller for a first-place prize of over $1.1 million. The Australian poker pro has over $15.7 million in career earnings at the live felt and will be looking to add to that number in the coming days.
Imsirovic scooped a massive pot in the last 30 minutes of the night to eliminate Dan Smith to take over the chip lead from Addamo briefly and finished the night with 4,875,000 chips, just shy of Addamo's mark. The two players have been the hottest players in the last 12 months on the high roller circuit and they have finished one-two on the leaderboard after Day 1.
$250K Super High Roller Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts
| RANK | PLAYER | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Addamo | Australia | 4,965,000 | 166 |
| 2 | Ali Imsirovic | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 4,875,000 | 163 |
| 3 | Benjamin Heath | United Kingdom | 3,545,000 | 118 |
| 4 | Adrian Mateos | Spain | 3,420,000 | 114 |
| 5 | Timofey Kuznetsov | Russia | 2,890,000 | 96 |
| 6 | Christoph Vogelsang | Germany | 2,860,000 | 95 |
| 7 | Stephen Chidwick | United Kingdom | 2,540,000 | 85 |
| 8 | Daniel Negreanu | Canada | 2,305,000 | 77 |
| 9 | Justin Bonomo | United Kingdom | 2,285,000 | 76 |
| 10 | Sam Soverel | United States | 2,190,000 | 73 |
Some other notables to bag chips after Day 1 include Adrian Mateos (3,420,000), Timofey 'Trueteller' Kuznetsov (2,890,000), Daniel Negreanu (2,305,000), and Justin Bonomo (2,285,000).
The tournament got off to a slow start with only a few players registered at the scheduled 3 p.m. start time. There was a slight delay until six players were at the table and ready to play but things eventually got rolling. With nearly 400 big blind starting stacks, the first couple levels were rather uneventful with just small chip-changed being passed around the table.
The first all-in occurred in level three when crypto businessman John Lilic shoved his stack in the middle against Addamo, who decided to lay his hand down. Unfortunately for Lilic, his luck didn't continue as he was eventually sent to the rail in the sixth level of the day.
GGPoker ambassador Jason Koon was the first player to be eliminated in level four when he ran a jack-high flush into Stephen Chidwick's ace-high flush. Koon used his one re-entry to hop back in the field but his second bullet went as well as his first one, eventually being eliminated from the tournament during Level 8.
Some others that were eliminated in the latter stages of the day include David Peters,Fedor Holz, Jake Schindler, Seth Davies, and Bonomo, with latter being the only one to use his re-entry before the day ended.
There will be 15 players returning to the felt tomorrow at 2 p.m. local time but late registration will remain open until the start of play. The blinds will resume at 15,000/30,000 and a 30,000 big blind ante. All new entries will receive a starting stack of 1,500,000 chips, good enough for 50 big blinds.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be back on the tournament floor to bring you all of the updates throughout the day.