Eric Kurtzman chipleader, Shaun Deeb et Joseph Cheong en chasse
Eric Kurtzman of Las Vegas ended Day 1 of Event #53: $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller with a big chip lead as he looks to earn his first World Series of Poker bracelet. Kurtzman ended the first day of the four-day PLO tournament with a stack of 773,500, sitting comfortably ahead of other big stacks Joseph Cheong (592,000), Yuval Bronshtein (580,000), Shaun Deeb (566,500), Martin Dam (530,500) and Dylan Weisman (505,000).
Kurtzman has $569,668 in career WSOP earnings, a big chunk of which he earned earlier this month when he finished third in Event #16: $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship for $108,747.
Deeb is looking to win the $25,000 pot-limit Omaha event for the second time after winning it in 2018 for $1,402,683. Weisman, meanwhile, is after his second bracelet of the series after shipping Event #28: $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha for $166,461.
Defending champion Stephen Chidwick, who won the event in 2019, was not seen in the field on Day 1 but could make an appearance during Day 2, as late registration will remain open for the first two levels of play.
Play on Day 1 lasted for ten hours and ended at the conclusion of Level 10. Many of the biggest names in poker made it to bagging time, including Daniel Negreanu, Scott Seiver, David Benyamine, Anthony Zinno, Erik Seidel, Chance Kornuth, Sam Soverel and Simon Lofberg.
Some of the casualties throughout the first day of play included Jeremy Ausmus (he re-entered and bagged more than 130,000), James Chen, Randy Ohel, Josh Arieh, Jeff Gross and Ayaz Mahmood.
Day 2 of the four-day tournament will commence on Oct. 28. at 2 p.m. local time and will play for ten levels. Players will take a 60-minute dinner break after the completion of Level 16 at approximately 8:30 p.m.
Don't go far as the PokerNews live reporting team will be back tomorrow bringing you updates of the Day 2 action.