The Main Event gets underway

The first day of the Main Event has been completed at the Rio, and a number of big name players have already been spotted trying their luck at the tables.

Day 1a saw a total of 897 players sit down in what is traditionally the smallest of the Day 1 fields. By the end of play this number had been further whittled down to 556 competitors. The current chip leader is Frank Berger with 209,500 and he is followed by Shane Sigbee with a stack of 182,600.

With this being the Main Event it is perhaps unsurprising to learn that a fair number of poker’s famous faces have already been spotted at the felt– and some of them even managed to make it through to day two.

This fortunate bunch includes ten-time bracelet winner Johnny Chan, Team PokerStars’s Lex Veldhuis and Norwegian pro Annette Obrestad, who is yet to cash at this year’s WSOP.

However, with this ultra-competitive field not everybody could have such luck, and among those eliminated were pros Vanessa Selbst and Isaac Haxton. Doyle Brunson, who had previously indicated that he had no intention of entering the Main Event, may now  be wishing he had taken his own advice, as he too found himself sent to the rail on the first day of play.