Wednesday, September 27, 2017 12:46 AM Local Time
Day 1 Concludes with Five Survivors
The clock has run out on Level 21 and on Day 1 as a whole. The final five players came close to reaching the finish line, but the rest of the race will have to be run tomorrow.
Here's the remaining lineup:
Seat 1: Stephen Bierman - 170,000 (14 bb)
Seat 2: Jeffrey Higgins - 655,000 (55 bb)
Seat 3: Steven Disney - 63,000 (5 bb)
Seat 4: Austin Reilly - 378,000 (32 bb)
Seat 5: Sean Shah - 307,000 (26 bb)
Austin Reilly is the only previous winner on the WSOP Circuit left in the field, and he enters Day 2 second in chips and hunting a second ring. Sean Shah has come close before, and he'll be a force to contend with the rest of the way, as well.
They and the other two are well in trail of chip leader Jeffrey Higgins, though. Higgins is appearing at his second final table of this Circuit season, and he's a favorite to close it out this time. He has more than 40 percent of the total chips in play with five players left.
Blinds will be 6,000/12,000 with a 2,000 ante when play resumes, putting the average stack around 27 big blinds. Here are the remaining payouts up for grabs:
1st: $12,877
2nd: $7,959
3rd: $5,729
4th: $4,199
5th: $3,132
Day 2 begins Wednesday at 1 p.m.