Wednesday July 6, 2011 : Event 56: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em started out on Tuesday afternoon with another bumper entry list of 3,389 players packing the Rio venue and generating a prize pool of $4.57 million.
Ten levels were completed and play for the day halted Tuesday night with Ben Volpe emerging early on as a true champion, bagging up 156,400 chips – well ahead of his nearest rival David Zemel on 127,700.
It's early days yet, and with players like Bryn Kennedy, Gavin Smith, Brett Jungblut, Eddy Sabat and Dan Kelly still active the second day should be exciting as the 465 survivors return to the felt.
Among those who will not be returning are Vanessa Selbst, Humberto Brenes, Scott Montgomery, Antonio Esfandiari, Andre Akkari, Liv Boeree, Sam Trickett and Nacho Barbero.