Doug Polk already has one WSOP Tag Team bracelet to his name, after Day 1 of the $10K Championship, he’s well positioned for another one. (WPT photo)[/CAPTION]
The 2017 World Series of Poker got underway Wednesday with two bracelet events starting and it ended with a familiar face sitting atop the chip counts.

Employees Event Opens Things Up, Gallagher Leads Final 11

As has become custom, the first event on the schedule was the $565 Casino Employees event. This year 651 players, all of whom work in the casino or poker industry in some respect, showed up to take their shot at winning a WSOP bracelet.

David Tuchman, Erica Lindgren and former November Niner Kenny Hallaert were among some of the recognizable faces in the crowd. After playing 20 30-minute levels on Wednesday, just 11 players remain and a pair of Christopher’s sit atop the chip counts, separated by a single small blind.

Christopher Gallagher, representing Portland, OR, bagged up 519,000 while Christopher Solomon, out of Jacksonville, FL, finished with 513,000. Vincent Russell, from Bagshot, England, is the only international player still in the tournament.

Action resumes at Noon and will play down to a winner.

Chip Counts

  1. Christopher Gallagher – 519,000
  2. Christopher Solomon – 513,000
  3. Jermel Stephens – 418,000
  4. Alexis Cordova-Nieto – 348,000
  5. Victor Kim – 323,000
  6. Bryan Hollis – 290,000
  7. Adem Arbuckle – 243,000
  8. Vincent Russell – 216,000
  9. Joshua Clanton – 172,000
  10. Haviv Bahar – 145,000
  11. Nathan Bolinger – 77,000

Team Doug Polk Leading $10,000 Tag Team Championship

Last year Doug Polk and Ryan Fee teamed up to take down the inaugural $1,000 buy-in Tag Team event. Wednesday they returned with reinforcements and ended up bagging the chip lead. Polk and Fee added Jason Mo and Michael Finstein to their squad and made it through 10 levels of play with 240,600, good enough for the chip lead.

The event allows teams of between two and four players, with each player required to play just one set of blinds to qualify as a team. A total of 102 teams made their way into the field and exactly half of the moved on to Day 2. Two players who were picked by PocketFives staff to win their first bracelet this summer, Stephen Chidwick andDan Smith, teamed up and would up with the third largest stack at the end of Day 1.

Team Rast, which was comprised of Brian Rast, Jeff Gross, Antonio Esfandiari and Olympian Michael Phelps was unable to make it through Day 1. Andy Bloch and good friend Chris Ferguson barely survived through Day 1, with all but 24,300 being seized by other players.

The final 51 teams return at 2 pm PT.

Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts

  1. Team Polk – 240,600
  2. Team Staats – 216,400
  3. Team Tran – 207,000
  4. Team Chidwick – 204,500
  5. Team Salter – 192,300
  6. Javier Gomez – 191,100
  7. Team Fast – 187,100
  8. Team Gathy – 183,000
  9. Team Shuchi – 178,400
  10. Team Snead – 157,000

Day 2 Schedule

Thursday should see the Casino Employees event will play down to a winner, while the Tag Team Championship is scheduled to play 10.5 levels. Two more events get underway on Thursday. The $3,000 No Limit Hold’em Shootout event begins at 11 am PT while the $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8-or-better starts at 4 pm PT.