Hand 4: Victor Kim raised to 26,000 from middle position, and Chris Solomon three-bet to 80,000 on the button. Kim called. The flop came . Kim checked and Solomon bet 100,000. Kim tank-folded.
Hand 5: Kim limped in from middle position, as did Jermel Stephens on the button and Chris Gallagher from the small blind. Josh Clanton checked from the big blind. The flop came . Both blinds checked Kim, and he bet 32,000. Stephens quickly called, and both blinds folded. The turn was the and both players checked to the river, which was the . Both players checked again, and Stephens elected to show first, revealing for the winner.
Hand 6: Chris Solomon raised to 32,000 from the hijack, and Gallagher three-bet to 90,000 on the button. Solomon open-folded .
Hand 7: Victor Russell was under the gun and raised to 27,000. Everyone folded.
Hand 8: Stephens was in late position and raised to 30,000. Kim was in the small blind and called. The flop came and Kim check-called a bet of 40,000 from Stephens. The turn was the and Kim led out for 70,000. Stephens quickly folded.
Hand 1: Josh "Plinko" Clanton moved all in from middle position and everyone folded.
Hand 2: Victor Kim raised to 26,000 from late position and everyone folded.
Hand 3: Clanton moved all in from early position for 160,000 and Bryan Hollis was directly to his left who also pushed all in for 296,000. Everyone else folded and the cards were tabled, leaving "Plinko" way ahead.
Josh Clanton:
Bryan Hollis:
The board ran out and "Plinko" got a full double-up.
Haviv Bahar moved all in from under the gun for 130,000. Action folded to Victor Kim on the button and he paused for a moment before moving all in over the top for 360,000. Both the blinds folded.
Kim was well ahead with , and Bahar showed , needing to catch one of the two remaining jacks in the deck.
The board ran out and Bahar was eliminated on the official final table bubble.
All remaining players are guaranteed a payout of $4,547.
Alex Cordova raised to 28,000 from the cutoff, and Nathan Bolinger moved all in for 60,000 from the small blind. Cordova thought for a moment and eventually called.
Nathan Bolinger:
Alex Cordova:
Bolinger was well ahead, but the flop came and Cordova took the lead with a pair of sevens.
The turn was the and the river was the , making Bolinger the first to be eliminated today.
The final 10 players are about to come together for the unofficial final table. A redraw will be posted shortly.
The tournament director has instructed the dealers to shuffle up and deal. The blind levels will be 60 minutes in length and after the first elimination of the day there will be a redraw to an unofficial final table of 10.
There will be just 11 players returning to the Miranda Room at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino to finish off what has been an excellent start to the 2017 WSOP in Event #1: $565 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'Em.
Chris Gallagher leads them all with 519,000 chips as he searches for that coveted WSOP bracelet and $68,817 first place prize. Chris Solomon is right on his heels with 513,000 and Jermel Stephens continues to move up the leaderboard with 418,000. After such a fast-paced Day 1 that saw 651 players enter the tournament, play is expected to slow down a little as players fight for the majority of the $325,500 prize pool.
Cards will be in the air at around 12:00 p.m. local time with the blinds starting at 6,000/12,000 and a 2,000 ante. Blind levels will be increased to 60-minutes for Day 2 with a 15-minute break every two levels. Play will conclude once a winner is crowned for this opening event.
Follow along with the PokerNews team for all of the live updated action throughout the entire series.