Jonathan Therme énorme à 59 left, Ryan Gibson en tête
Day 1 of Event #28 $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed has come to an end after nearly 14 hours of play. The starting field of 1,069 players was trimmed all the way down to 59 by end of the wild day and night of four-card action.
Bagging the chip lead was Ryan Gibson who bagged a whopping 1,940,000, a full 600,000 more than second place and more than double some of the top five stacks. He caught fire the last few levels, started to amass a massive stack and there was nothing his opponents could do about it.
He eliminated several players who had previously had large stacks such as David Prociak and Kevin Eyster, before they met their untimely end at the hands of Gibson. Gibson has no recorded poker results to speak of thus far, but finds himself in prime position to change that with a bang.
Second in chips to end the night was Alexander Yen, chipleader for much of the final levels before Gibson’s meteoric ascent. He ended the night with a substantial 1,314,000 in chips.
Top 10 Stacks
| Chip Position | Player | Country | Chip Count |
| 1 | Ryan Gibson | United States | 1,940,000 |
| 2 | Alexander Yen | United States | 1,314,000 |
| 3 | Jonathan Therme | France | 1,033,000 |
| 4 | Dylan Weisman | United States | 937,000 |
| 5 | Michael Perrone | United States | 750,000 |
| 6 | Casey Carroll | United States | 680,000 |
| 7 | Craig Chait | United States | 664,000 |
| 8 | Tegnear Butler | United States | 553,000 |
| 9 | Gabe Ramos | United States | 550,000 |
| 10 | Youness Barakat | Italy | 539,000 |
The only other player to end the night with over 1 million was Jonathan Therme with 1,033,000. Dylan Weisman finished the night fourth in chips with 937,000 after he briefly held the chip lead late in the night. Bracelet winner Michael Perrone rounded out the top five nightly stacks with 750,000.
A few other notable players to find a bag were Georgios Sotiropoulos (474,000), Jungwoong Park (154,000) and Joseph Cheong (454,000), who was short -tacked for the final few levels but managed to spin it up to a healthy amount to ready himself for a potential deep run on Day 2.
Unsurprisingly, there were several players who did not find a bag and were eliminated. The top 161 players ended up with a money finish, and some of those who finished in the money included Ryan Laplante, Daniel Negreanu and Adam Owen.
Day 2 will kick off at 12 p.m. local time at Level 18. Blinds will increase to 60 minutes in length and the plan is to play from 59 all the way down to the final five.
PokerNews will provide blow-by-blow action of this event from start to finish, so stay turned for more Pot-Limit Omaha action from the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino.