Day 1 is in the bag and and UK favourite Ludovic Geilich is laying an early claim to the first open bracelet
1. Event 1: $565 Casino Employees
The number 565 has a huge significance in the 2015 WSOP, but it’s not because of the Casino Employees event, which kicked off proceedings here. Numbers were down from 876 last year to 688, and these were whittled down to just 51 players who will restart at 1pm today.
The chip leader is US player Stephen Gilbert with 236,500, just ahead of the only other player to break the 200k mark, Blake Robbins, also from the US.
2. Event 2: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em
You need to be fit to play the WSOP. 422 players started the $5k NLHE event at 4pm yesterday and after ten levels just 171 were left bleary eyed at 3am. Darryl Ronconi is leading the pack but one of UK’s finest Ludovic Geilich is just behind him in second. A Ludo final table would really get the 2015 WSOP off with a bang.
There are lots of other big names in contention too. Martin Jacobson – 2014 Main Event champ – is in fifth, Joseph Cheong is 17th, Antonio Esfandiari is 29th and Phil Hellmuth is back grinding his short stack in 124th.
The first prize is a juicy $466,120, plus the honour of winning the first open event of the 2015 games.
3. Keep up live
The live streams don’t kick in until the final tables – the $5k NLHE is on Saturday, with hole cards, commentary and a 30-minute delay. You can find the full live streaming schedule here.
You can also follow live hand updates at the WSOP.com site here.
4. What’s new?
Events 3 and 4, both three-day events kick off today. Event 3 is the $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better and Event 4 is the $3,000 Shootout No-Limit Hold’em. Friday and Saturdays are completely devoted to The Colossus, with Event 6, the Hyper Hold’em, not starting until Sunday.
5. 565?
The significance of 565 that we mentioned earlier? That’s the buy-in of The Colossus, Event 5, which has already made history as the biggest live event of all time, with over 10,000 players pre-registered. It’s going to be mental so if you want to play we’d suggest heading down to the Rio today to buy your ticket.
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