WSOP Event #50: Day 1 Ends With 64 Survivors

It's shootout time! Event #50 kicked off with a total of 572 players who gathered to participate in the $1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout. Spread across 64 tables, only the winners of each table were given tickets for Day 2, thus earning at least $4,350 for this event. In order to claim the title, he or she will have to survive three tables and naturally, win the third one. Whoever manages to achieve this will earn $194,854 and a WSOP gold bracelet.

Many notables were seen at the tables on Day 1, including Allen Cunningham, David "Chino" Rheem, Gavin Griffin, Brock Parker, Joe Sebok, Dennis Phillips, Scott Seiver, Michael Binger, Svetlana Gromenkova, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi and many more.

Jimmy Fricke started his day quite well, coming on top of some early encounters with Shaun Deeb. Fricke raised from the button, Deeb three-bet from the small blind, the big blind folded and Fricke called. The flop came , Deeb bet and Fricke called. The turn brought and this time Deeb check-folded to Fricke's bet.

The following hand featured Erik Haakenson making a raise, Fricke three-bet and Deeb made it four, both Fricke and Haakenson called and the action moved to the flop of . It was checked to Deeb who bet and again both Fricke and Haakenson called. The turn brought , it was checked to Deeb who bet and this time only Fricke made the call. The river came , Fricke checked, Deeb bet and Fricke called, turning over while Deeb mucked his hand. Fricke climbed up to 5,100 in chips at this point and Deeb was down to 3,500. Meanwhile, Haakenson preserved his lead at the table with about 6,200.

Despite a good start, Fricke couldn't make it through the day, as well as J.C. Tran, Sorel Mizzi, Victor Ramdin and Shaun Deeb. Interesting enough, while most of the tables have already lost a few players, there was still one table at the start of Level 5 with all nine players still in their seats. It was Scott Seiver's table at which he was battling for the chip lead with David Plastik.

Seiver couldn't pull off a victory there and had to leave the table, as Plastik and Cladio Rinaldi (pictured left) engaged in a heads-up match with Rinaldi holding a roughly 3-2 chip lead over Plastik. Eventually, it was David Plastik who managed to secure himself the seat for the next play day.

Amongst the 64 survivors were also Jean-Robert Bellande, who finished second in the same event last year, David Williams, Juha Hellpi, Brock Parker, Dan Heimiller, Greg Mueller, Erik Haakenson and the winner of the last table of the night, Mario Locicero. The second play day will bring eight-handed tables, same as it will be on the final play day when the champion will be determined.