Both starting days of the WSOP Circuit Horseshoe Baltimore main event are in the books and Henry Meacham leads the 81 players returning for Day 2 on Sunday afternoon.
Meacham bagged up 357,500 on Saturday afternoon to finish with the Day 1B chip lead and take the overall chip lead into Day 2. He holds a slight lead over Richie Smith, who finished Friday with 345,500. He comes into Day 2 second in chips after finishing Friday with the Day 1A chip lead.
There were 199 entries that put up the $1,675 buy-in on Day 1A and another 250 entries on Day 1B to bring the total field size to 449 entries, which generated a prizepool of $673,500. There were 31 survivors from Day 1A and 50 survivors from Day 1B to compose the 81 players returning for Day 2. The top 45 finishers will earn a min-cash of at least $3,044, but the eventual winner will take home $148,171.
Joining Meacham and Smith at the top of the counts are Dong Jun Ji (270,500), Josh Vizcarra (263,000) and Nils Tolpingrud (237,500). Other notables who are returning on Sunday include five-time ring winner Kurt Jewell (210,000), Dennis Phillips (196,000), all-time ring leader Maurice Hawkins (183,500), A.J. Kelsall (179,000), Jordan Meltzer (139,500), Harrah's Cherokee main event champion Van Truong (135,000), Jason Gooch (118,500), Daniel Pearlman (101,000), David Aker (89,000), Ryan Jones (75,000), Justin Liberto (67,000), Rex Clinkscales (56,000) and Alex Rocha (42,000).
Here is a look at the top 10 chip counts:
- Henry Meacham - 357,500
- Richie Smith - 345,500
- Dong Jun Ji - 270,500
- Josh Vizcarra - 263,000
- Nils Tolpingrud - 237,500
- James Sloat - 237,000
- Michael Anderson - 230,000
- Chris Harris - 216,500
- Kurt Jewell - 210,000
- Dennis Phillips - 196,000
Complete chip counts can be found in the “Reports” tab of the main event live updates.
Not everybody was fortunate enough to survive one of the two starting flights, with many top-notch poker players hitting the rail before they could put chips in a bag. Former champion of this event Chris Csik, bracelet winner Jean Gaspard, Denise Pratt, eight-time ring winner Robert Hankins, Bryan Piccioli, Vinny Pahuja, Michael Sanders, Allen Kessler, John Holley, Jim Collopy, Chris Staats, and Sam Grizzle were among the notable players who won’t be returning for Day 2.
Cards get back in the air on Sunday at noon and the first thing the money bubble will be the first thing on everybody’s minds. With just 36 eliminations before the money bubble bursts, the field will play into the money early in the day.
The schedule for the day is to play 10, 60-minute levels and the final table should be reached late in the day. Levels will be an hour long for the duration of the tournament and the players who survive the day’s action will come back on Monday at noon to play down to a winner.