Friday July 1,2011 : The first day of event 51: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-low Split-8 or Better concluded in the early hours of Friday morning with William Speir topping the leaderboard on 115,300, ahead of nearest rival Dave Sands on 94,000. At that point 134 survivors were bagging their chips and preparing for another tough day starting Friday.
There were 946 entries for this competition, generating a prize pool of $1.22 million and attracting an eclectic mix of amateur and professional players.
Falling on the first day were quality players like Phil Laak, Tom Dwan, Daniel Negreanu, Eric Baldwin, Marcel Luske, Mike Matusow, Greg Raymer, Jonathan Duhamel, and Phil Hellmuth.
However, an equally impressive list of aces will be moving into the second day of the action Friday, including Alexandre Gomes, Kathy Liebert, Alex Wice, Alexander Kostritsyn, Erick Lindgren, Erik Seidel, Joe Hachem, and David Sands.