Wednesday, June 10, 2015 5:16 AM Local Time
Christian Pham Takes Massive Chip Lead to Day 2 of $1,500 No Limit 2-7 Single Draw
The 23rd event of the 2015 World Series of Poker kicked off on Tuesday afternoon in the form of a $1,500 No Limit 2-7 Single Draw. 219 players put up the cash to enter the event and they played 10, one-hour levels before bagging up for the day.
The field was littered some of the game's best players, but it was Christian Pham who emerged as the day's chip leader. The Minnesota native finished the day with 145,175 in chips, more than 55,000 chips than his closest competitor. Joining Pham at the top of the chip counts are Nicholas Verkaik, Daniel Ospina, and Andrey Zhigalov. They finished the day with 90,000, 71,550, and 70,975 in chips, respecitvely.
Other notables who bagged up chips and heading to Day 2 include Huck Seed, Robert Mizrachi, Jon Turner, Tom Schneider, Ray Henson, Mohsin Charania, Frank Kassela, Dan Smith, Mike Leah, and Mike Goroinsky.
Not everybody was lucky enough to survive the day and plenty of top pros hit the rail before the day's end. Phil Hellmuth, Jen Harman, Barry Greenstein, Jesse Martin, Michael Mizrachi, Allen Cunningham, Greg Raymer, Justin Bonomo, and defending champion Steven Wolansky were just a few of the many familiar faces to hit the rail earlier than they would have liked.
The 219 players generated a prizepool of $295,650, with the top 28 players earning at least a min-cash of $2,578 and a first place prize of $81,314. While 219 players started the day, when the final hand was dealt, there were only 40 players remaining.
Those 40 players will return to the Rio to get cards in the air for Day 2 on Wednesday afternoon at 2 pm to play another 10 levels and move closer to the final table. Check back with WSOP.com for continued coverage of the Day 2 action.