Day 1A Recap

More than 250 players came to the Bellagio today to play the first half of day one here. It wasn’t the number that was so impressive, though, as the quality of the field.

Everywhere you looked there were stars. Tables contained five, six or seven faces familliar to the viewers of televised poker. Doyle sat with TJ, Ivey with Chau, Hellmuth with Sagstrom. It was a star-studded affair.

With the dust now settled, Clonie Gowan sits atop the standings. Not just another pretty face, the Texas belle eliminated Patrik Antonius and Tuan Le in consecutive hands to leapfrog the field. She’ll enter day two with just over T180,000.

Hot on Clonie’s heels is Freddy Deeb, everyone’s favorite little big man. Mark Newhouse, Michael Mizrachi and Jim Worth are all sitting comfortably above the T100,000 line, and they’ll all have a day off to lick their wounds, catch up on their sleep and get ready to play 36 hours from now.

In the mean time, tomorrow will see another 250+ come and try to join them. Look for Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein and Chip Reese to headline what’s bound to be a weaker half of the field. Be sure to check back at 12:00 PST when the proceedings get underway. See you then.