The first day of the most expensive tournament in poker history has come to an end. Not less than 48 brave (and rich) players entered the $1,000,000 buy-in tournament The Big One for One Drop (Event #55 - No-Limit Hold'em).
After 9 levels of play, the first day came to an end with 37 players (players that were eliminated on the day included, for example, Jens Kyllönen, Jonathan Duhamel, Paul Phua, Erik Seidel, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Nick Schulman, Eugene Katchalov, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi and Giovanni Guarascio.). Brian Rast tops the the remaining field with his 10,7100,000 stack, Phil Hellmuth is in second place with 8,395,000 chips.
The total prize pool is amazing $42,666,672 and 9 players will receive a piece of it. The winner will take home amazing $18,346,672 - about $6,000,000 more than Jamie Gold's main event win paid in 2006!
Below are the chip counts and a photo of Big One for One Drop participants: