141 players paid $25k each and entered the PCA High Roller event yesterday. Seven of these 141 players even re-entered the tournament for another $25,000 ("ElkY", Chris Moorman, Chance Kornuth, Eui Woong Kim, Joe Elpayaa, and Nick Yunis)., making the total number of entries 148 - 10 less than last year.
After 11 levels of play, lots of all ins, bad beats etc, 56 players remained and they will return to the tables today and continue the struggle towards the juicy $1,134,930 first prize. Chip leader is Nick Yunis from Chile with about 60k more than his closest opponent, businessman Bill Perkins. Yunis has been around the poker scene for a couple of years but missed out on the really big cashes. So, now he has a great opportunity to do something about that.
Speaking of Bill Perkins. He stole the show during Day 1 by getting involved in almost every single pot and never was he afraid of pushing his stack towards the center of the table when needed. Many were expecting the aggressive businessman to lose his chips at some point. But instead his aggressive style of playing worked out just perfect for him as he finished the day with 345,700 chips. Add to that that he knocked out pros like Viktor "Isildur1" Blom, Carlos Mortensen etc.
What about the big names?
There are plenty of heavy names left in the field of 56 players. Jonathan Duhamel (226k), Elio Fox (216k), Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (134k), Joe cada (91k), just to mention a few. 16 players will receive a minimum of $58,000 each. The 8 finalist will get a minimum of $108,780.
