Preben Stokkan bet 11,000 into about 15,000 from the small blind on and Parker Talbot called from under the gun. On the river, Stokkan checked and Talbot moved all in for 35,000. Stokkan tanked long enough for someone to call a clock before folding at the five-second mark.
Joining the action on the flop, Jason Mercier checked in the small blind and Michael Addamo made it 2,300 to go from middle position. Mercier called and the turn brought no betting action. On the river, Mercier checked again and Addamo bet 9,000.
What followed was a check-raise by Mercier to 28,200 and Addamo was sent into the think tank for almost three minutes. The Aussie, who capped off a stellar 2018 by winning two WSOP bracelets, then sent his cards into the muck. Below are assorted counts from notables on the same table.
Ole Schemion raised it up from middle position and Jose Montes three-bet to 2,200 directly on his left. The action folded back to Schemion who called to see a flop of . Schemion check-called a bet of 2,000 from Montes and the showed up on the turn.
Schemion checked again and Montes tossed in another bet of 4,600. Schemion wasn't ready to give up on his hand yet as he made the call. The on the river paired the board and both players knuckled the table in quick succession. Schemion flipped over but was pipped by Montes' .
The board read with around 24,000 in the middle already.
Gonzalo Robles had checked in the big blind and Brian Yoon decided to bet 8,500 from the early position. Another player that was involved in the hand quickly folded but Robles needed some more time. After a while, Robles put in a chip for the call and mucked when Yoon showed he held for the flopped set of nines.
In the previous level, Randall Emmett joked in table chat who he considered as a professional player and fish. The American producer then claimed he had already engraved his name into the trophy and that the other players at the table could come outside and take a picture with it. One of them may well do that in a few days from now, but Emmett has been among the early casualties in the second level of the day.
Danny Tang and famous golfer Sergio Garcia also joined Emmett on the rail. Garcia ran into a set of David Yan twice in quick succession, first with aces versus queens on a queen-high flop and then with versus pocket tens when Yan immediately flopped another ten.
The players are in the midst of their first 20-minute break of the day with a lot of buzz in the big tournament room still, and the screens show a total of 918 entries. So far, only a handful of participants have run out of chips and Day 1 will feature another six levels.
In the last hand before the break, there was a raise to 600 from under the gun. Atanas Pavlov called from middle position along with the button. John Racener three-bet to 3,200 in the small blind and was called by all three players.
The flop came and the action checked around to the on the turn. Racener led out for 7,000 and Pavlov was the only player to call. The river brought the and Racener checked this time. Pavlov fired in a bet of 20,000 which sent Racener to the tank for nearly four minutes. He eventually mucked his cards and Pavlov raked in the pot.
Joey Ingram, Daniel Dvoress, and Nick Schulman are also seated at the table.