Rio Exterior
The Rio Hotel & Casino, scene of the most recent huge day of World Series of Poker Main Event action.

Day 1e of the World Series of Poker Main Event saw 797 players take to the felt in a bid to become this year’s world champion. With dramatic exits for several big names including Daniel Negreanu, there were plenty of big names who made big stacks across a day at the felt that saw 592 players survive.

Gerassi Grabs Late Lead on Day 1e

With an all-American top 10, it’s only fair that we look at who took the chip lead on the day, and Day1e’s conqueror was David Gerassi, who totaled 316,100 by the close of play. Gerassi was followed by players such as Kenn Pluard (307,600) and Conrad De Armas (302,800) on the leaderboard as the only other two players to total more than 300,000 chips, but there were plenty of big names in the chasing pack.

Two former Main Event champions had great days at the felt, with Joe ‘Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!’ Hachem (186,100) and Scott Blumstein (95,000) both made Day 2 with more than their starting stacks to say the least, especially Hachem, who trebled by the close of play.

Elsewhere, players such as Romain Lewis (157,000), Andre Akkari (139,500), Max Greenwood (135,500), Dan Colpoys (123,400), Shankar Pillai (113,400), Dietrich Fast (112,600), and Frank Funaro (103,700) all bagged six-figure stacks at the end of Day 1e.

Kid Poker Crashes Out with Kings

While a massive 3,921 players have so far survived five Day 1 flights from the 5,116 total entries in this year’s Main Event with just one starting flight to come, over a thousand hopefuls have departed. On Day 1e, there was a dramatic early exit for Daniel Negreanu, who busted with pocket kings against pocket aces to see his hopes of improving on his run to 11th place in 2015 go up in smoke just a few days after Bonfire Night.

Elsewhere, Dan Smith busted when a pot worth 125 big blinds saw him come out on the losing side of a massive coinflip.

Dan Ott, possibly the shortest-named excellent poker player in the world and former WSOP Main Event runner-up in 2017, had an interesting exchange with a player at his Main Event table. Ott would later be out as he was unable to survive Day 1e. We’ll remember you, Dan.

With Ryan Leng, Andrew Kelsall, Andrew Barber, Jason Wheeler, Kelly Saxby, Zach Gruneberg, Maurice Hawkins, Yiannis Liperis, Gershon Distenfeld, and Courtney Webb joining Ott on the rail, we lost several poker superstars at the felt on Day 1e.

WSOP 2021 Event #67 $10,000 Main Event Top 10 Chipcounts:

  1. David Gerassi – 316,100
  2. Kenn Pluard – 307,600
  3. Conrad De Armas – 302,800
  4. James Mendoza – 255,900
  5. Greg Pohler – 248,500
  6. Victor Ramdin – 228,300
  7. Yiming Cao – 228,000
  8. Ryan Delgros – 223,400
  9. Craig Chait – 222,400
  10. Jordan Jayne – 219,200

Mukul Pahuja Leads The Little One For One Drop

In the $1,111 Little One for One Drop, it was Mukul Pahuja who bagged the chip lead on a dramatic first day at the felt that saw 490 entries reduced to just 143 survivors.

With two more starting flights to come, we’d expect a much bigger Day 1b and Day 1c as players jump in the event that gives part of the buy-in to charity and helps those most in need.

Elsewhere in the top 10, there were big stacks for Fernando Ribeiro (428,000), Poorya Nazari (377,500) and Steven Stolzenfeld (376,200) as players battled for domination and a Day 2 seat. Big names such as Ryan Depaulo (114,200) and Daniel Negreanu (93,000) also made Day 2 which will commiserate them over the exits from the Main Event yesterday.

WSOP 2021 Event #68 $1,111 Little One for One Drop Top 10 Chipcounts:

  1. Mukul Pahuja – 518,300
  2. Fernando Ribeiro – 428,000
  3. Poorya Nazari – 377,500
  4. Steven Stolzenfeld – 376,200
  5. Jorge Briones – 319,500
  6. Osmin Dardon – 296,000
  7. Christopher Smith – 295,400
  8. Wai Kit Lo – 292,300
  9. Richard Weathington – 286,000
  10. Michael Weber – 270,600

With ‘the world and his wife’ likely to be playing Day 1f, the WSOP Main Event looks set to host its record attendance day on Tuesday. One particular poker power couple, Felipe Ramos and his wife Natalie Hof-Ramos have the ultimate side-bet in operation. No-one should play for such high stakes!

Finally, the options are open for Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates to join Phil Hellmuth in making his walk of shame… ahem, we mean spectacular WSOP Main Event entrance as Gandalf the White on Friday.

The purveyor of poker ‘White Magic’ is, of course, a legendary figure so rightly represents a wizard with 16 WSOP titles to Cates’ single gold bracelet, but who should the 2021 Poker Players Championship winner attend as? Answers to be hurled into the burning flame pit of Mordor.