Last year's champion Vanessa Selbst had a lucky double up with 8,4 suited against aces all in pre-flop to finish the day with 87k.
Due to the smaller field, the tournament played 8 instead of 10 levels, and will do the same on Day 2.
Some have speculated that the conflicted timing with a WPT event in Indiana starting at the same time hurt the numbers down from 719 last year. Others have been left with a poor taste in their mouth from PokerStars last minute leaving the Los Angeles event at the Bike.
1. Chris Tryba – 173,400
2. Jerry Wong – 165,000
3. Aaron Mermelstein – 147,500
4. Mehrdad Yousefzadeh – 131,700
5. Sean Ripp – 128,700
6. Vanessa Rousso – 125,800
7. Joseph Gibbons – 125,400
8. Victor Ramdin – 123,100
9. Adam Junglen – 117,600
10. Greg Ostrander – 116,000
Three-time WPT Champion and 2001 WSOP Main Event winner Carlos Mortensen is just outside the Top 10 with 107,000 chips, along with John D’Agostino, Nenad Medic, and Dan Shak, all of whom sit above 100k.
Other big names still in the hunt include Lee Markholt, Bernard Lee, Eric Froehlich, James Carroll, Olivier Busquet, Faraz Jaka, Nick Binger, Pat Pezzin, Matt Matros, George Lind III, Todd Terry, Cliff Josephy, Jason Mercier, Andrew Brokos, Jeff Madsen, Jonathan Duhamel, Joe Cada, and Matt Glantz.
