After nearly five weeks of events, the 2016 World Series of Poker Main Event kicked off on Saturday with 764 players showing up for Day 1A action. And while the Main Event was kicking off, five other events continued including three that awarded bracelets to some well-known players.

The 2016 World Series of Poker Main Event Gets Underway

Day 1A is traditionally the smallest WSOP Main Event starting day of the three on the schedule. Most players play Day 1C to minimize the amount of travel and time off so the seemingly low turnout for Day 1A is really nothing to be concerned about. The 764 players who showed up for play on Saturday actually represent a slight increase of 2015.

The biggest stack from Day 1A belongs to Gary Sewell with 312,500. He’s one of just two players to top the 300,000 mark as Alvaro Lopez finished with 306,200.

Mathew Ashton overcame a tough table draw to finish with 212,600. Ashton played with Andy Black, Greg Mueller and James Akenhead for most of the day but still managed to end up in the top five. Dan Shak also had a Day 1A to remember after building his stack to 208,400 – good enough for the top ten.

Just 567 players advanced to Day 2A. Included in that group are Shannon Shorr, Blake Bohn, Matt Matros, Jon Turner, Jonathan Little, Thor Hansen, Doc Sands, Alex Kravchenko, Andy Frankenberger and Matt Glantz.

There were more than a few notable players to hit the rail on Saturday. Included amongst them was Billy Baster, Naoya Kihara, Greg Mueller and Calvin Anderson.

Day 1B gets underway at 11 AM PT.

Day 1A Top 10 Chip Counts

1. Gary Sewell – 312,500
2. Alvaro Lopez – 306,200
3. Scott Neuman – 226,000
4. Sean Case – 222,500
5. Matthew Ashton – 212,600
6. Alexander Barlow – 212,100
7. Joep Raemaekers – 211,170
8. Carl Carodenuto – 210,800
9. Dan Shak – 208,400
10. Derek Chang – 205,200

Event #62: Jens ‘Jeans89’ Kyllonen Wins $25,000 High Roller Pot Limit Omaha

Just three players returned on Saturday to play down to a champion and a seven-figure payday. Once Dan Smith was eliminated in third, it took Jens Kyllonen nearly 2.5 hours to eliminate Tommy Le to win the first WSOP bracelet of his career.

“I can’t remember having a rush like I had today,” Kyllonen said. “I had some big wins online and back in 2011 I won a million in a single day. But other than that, this is the biggest one.”

Kyllonen, known as ‘Jeans89’ online, found the final table to be a little bit softer than you’d expect in a $25,000 buy-in PLO event.

“I don’t want to get into other people’s mistakes at the table in this tournament, but online I play against tougher opposition.”

The win marks just the third WSOP cash of Kyllonen’s WSOP career and his only two previous results came in the Main Event.

Final Table Payouts

1. Jens Kyllonen – $1,127,035
2. Tommy Le – $696,558
3. Dan Smith – $487,361
4. Ryan D’Angelo – $347,641
5. Veselin Karakitukov – $252,909
6. Dmitry Savelyev – $187,724
7. Ludovic Geilich – $142,227
8. Sean Winter – $110,035

Event #63: Tony Dunst Wins First Bracelet in $1,000 No Limit Hold’em

Tony Dunst might be best known as part of the World Poker Tour broadcast family, but like many of his colleagues in that group, Dunst can play at a high level too. He proved that on Saturday night when he won the first bracelet of his career in the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event.

Dunst beat Jason Riykin heads-up for the bracelet and $339,254 first place prize. Finishing third was Joshua ‘jjprodigy’ Field. The controversial figure earned $153,015 for his finish.

Final Table Payouts
Tony Dunst – $339,254
Jason Rivkin – $209,596
Joshua Field – $153,015
Francisco Araujo – $112,724
Matas Cimbolas – $83,804
Sergio Cabrera – $62,880
Levon Torosyan – $47,622
Raffaele Castro – $36,406
David Sciacqua – $28,097

Event #64: Kyle Bowker Wins $3,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo

Continuing Saturday’s trend of established players winning the first bracelet of their career, Kyle Bowker won the $3,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo event, earning almost $300,000 along the way.

“This is a game not too many people play,” Bowker said.* “But I play it all the time online.*I’d rather be playing a final table in this game than any other.”

Scott Clements, who has over $1 million in lifetime WSOP earnings in Omaha Hi-Lo tournaments, finished eighth for $24,409.

Final Table Payouts

1. Kyle Bowker – $294,960
2. Kate Hoang – $182,281
3. Jarred Graham – $124,360
4. Richard Ashby – $86,422
5. Chris Ruby – $61,196
6. Noah Bronstein – $44,171
7. Daniel Lowe – $32,510
8. Scott Clements – $24,409
9. Paul Taylor – $18,702

Event #65: $1,000 Ladies Championship Reaches Final Table

Just nine of the 112 players that began Day 2 of the Ladies Championship event remain after 10 levels of play. Leading the pack by a large margin is Wendy Freedman with 909,000. No other players has even 700,000.

Amanda Baker, who has cashed in this event three times included a seventh place result in 2013 bagged up the second biggest chip stack.

Amanda Musumeci ended Day 2 with 403,000.

Vanessa Selbst, celebrating her birthday, was eliminated in 23rd place. Ebony Kenney finished 16th.

The final table resumes at Noon PT on Sunday.

Final Table Chip Counts

1. Wendy Freedman – 909,000
2. Amanda Baker – 675,000
3. Courtney Kennedy – 567,000
4. Barbara Johnson – 416,000
5. Amanda Musumeci – 403,000
6. Xiu Deng – 376,000
7. Natalia Breviglieri – 357,000
8. Yaxi Zhu – 221,000
9. Nicole Schwartz – 185,000

Event #67: Dan Smith Leads $111,111 One Drop High Roller Final 13

Dan Smith went straight from busting out of the $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha High Roller in third place to a seat in the $111,111 One Drop High Roller and started building his stack. His work paid off and Smith ended Day 2 of the event with the chip lead and 22,500,000 – nearly 50% more than any other player.

The day began with 88 Day 1 survivors plus a few last minute entries – including Smith – and ended with just 13 players remaining. Taylor Paur was elminated on the bubble setting off a frenzy of bustouts to get from 28 to 13. Some of those who managed to make the money in the biggest buy-in event currently on the 2016 WSOP schedule include Jason Mo, Rainer Kempe, Isaac Baron, Kyle Julius, Jeff Gross and Dario Sammartino.

The final 13 players return at 2 PM PT to play down to a winner to allow all players to play Day 1 C o the Main Event.

Final 13 Chip Counts

1. Dan Smith – 22,500,000
2. Brian Green – 14,865,000
3. Jack Salter – 12,790,000
4. Joe McKeehen – 7,160,000
5. Koray Aldemir – 7,140,000
6. Fedor Holz – 5,365,000
7. Niall Farrell – 5,100,000
8. David Steicke – 4,375,000
9. Adrian Mateos – 3,830,000
10. Scott Seiver – 2,685,000
11. Nick Petrangelo – 2,400,000
12. Brandon Steven -1,985,000
13. Antonio Esfandiari – 1,650,000