Robert Hoffman Leads Five Day 1A Survivors with 728,000 at WPT500 Los Angeles

A field of 100 entries kicked off the action in the first of 16 starting flights on Day 1A at WPT500 Los Angeles hosted by the Gardens Casino on Saturday. This $570 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament boasts a guaranteed prize pool of $1 million. This unique tournament series will host starting flights during the next four weekends, so players will have a plethora of options to jump in on the action.

There were five players that advanced to Day 2 on Sunday, January 5th, and the chip leader at the end of play was Robert Hoffman with a stack of 728,000. Rami Nabi closed out the day in second place with 546,000, and the next three players were clustered close together. Less than 40,000 in chips was all that separated Bud Lavassani (258,000), Rayna Davis (250,000), and Jose Mendez-Cossio (220,000).

The final 13 players made the money on Saturday, with Brian Podi (10th), Luc Lucas (11th), Imad Sahtout (12th), and Daryn Bush (13th) scoring the min-cash for $900. Lonnie Kantomer (6th), Diddy Chen (7th), Artin Faroukhians (8th), and Milton Armstrong (9th) all took home $1,200 in prize money.

Notables in the field on Day 1A that did not advance included WPTDeepStacks regular Mario Lopez, Massoud Eskandari, Wiliam Vo, Nathan Bjerno, Thanh Nguyen, and WPT Champions Club member Adam Weinraub (pictured), who recently released the movie “7 Days to Vegas” with WPT Commentator Vince Van Patten. They will all have many more opportunities to jump back in the tournament during the coming weeks of the holiday season.

Here is a look at the full schedule for the event:

Day 1A: Saturday, December 14 (5 players advanced from 100 entries)
Day 1B: Sunday, December 15, at 11 a.m.
Day 1C: Saturday, December 21, at 11 a.m.
Day 1D: Sunday, December 22 – Day 1D, at 11 a.m.
Day 1E: Friday, December 27 – Day 1E, at 11 a.m.
Day 1F (Turbo): Friday, December 27 – Day 1F, at 5 p.m.
Day 1G: Saturday, December 28 – Day 1G, at 11 a.m.
Day 1H (Turbo): Saturday, December 28 – Day 1H, at 5 p.m.
Day 1I: Sunday, December 29 – Day 1I, at 11 a.m.
Day 1J (Turbo): Sunday, December 29 – Day 1J, at 5 p.m.
Day 1K: Thursday, January 2 – Day 1K, at 11 a.m.
Day 1L (Turbo): Thursday, January 2 – Day 1L, at 5 p.m.
Day 1M: Friday, January 3 – Day 1M, at 11 a.m.
Day 1N (Turbo): Friday, January 3 – Day 1N, at 5 p.m.
Day 1O: Saturday, January 4 – Day 1O, at 11 a.m.
Day 1P (Hyper Turbo): Saturday, January 4, at 5 p.m.
Day 2: Sunday, January 5, at 1 p.m.

–Registration is open until the beginning of Level 9 on each flight.
–All Day 1 Flights will pay 12.5% of the field and play down to 5% of the field who will return on Day 2.

Players begin with stacks of 20,000 in each starting flight, with blind levels of 30 minutes on Day 1. Turbo starting flights will feature 20-minute levels, and the hyper turbo flight levels will be 15 minutes in length.

Blind levels will increase to 40 minutes on Day 2 of the tournament. The final table will see blind levels increase to 60 minutes, and then 30 minutes once the tournament reaches the heads-up final.

Day 1B begins on Sunday at 11 am, and there will be another late-night recap of the day after the end of play tomorrow.