Vanessa Selbst leads WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic after Day 1

Despite the draw of the Prague Poker Festival, a lot of big names turned out for the $10,000 WPT event at the Bellagio. Vanessa Selbst is leading the field into Day 2 with plenty of competition chasing her big stack.

Day 1 action

Vanessa Selbst will be looking to add another major tournament win to her resumé.

The opening day of the WPT Five Diamond saw 365 players put up $10,000 with 283 surviving to Day 2 action tonight. However, late registration for the event is open for the first two blind levels of Day 2 meaning that the final field size could swell to more than last year's 438.

Defending champion Antonio Esfandiari was one of many big names to survive the day, his stack good enough to put him in the top 20 chip counts. Other big names with big stacks include Hoyt Corkins, Erik Seidel and McLean Karr.

Vanessa Selbst was back doing what she did best - chipping up through sheer aggression and a little bit of luck when it was needed. A big pot against Adam Geyer holding K-K against his Q-8 on an eight-high board boosted her stack near six figures before she got on the right side of a set over set versus Victor Ramdin.

Selbst's 165,800 stack is good to lead the field while James "Flushy" Dempsey, November Niner Badih Bounahra and Andrew "luckychewy" Lichtenberger all made it through with above-average stacks.

Those returning with some catching up to do include Sean Getzwiller, Maria Ho, Bryan Devonshire, Jeff Madsen, Jennifer Tilly and Daniel Negreanu.

The facts and figures

WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic Day 1
Place	Name	Chip Count
1st	Vanessa Selbst	165,800
2nd	John Smith	156.075
3rd	Jean Gaspard	131,925
4th	Jonathan Bennett	130,000
5th	Keith Ferrera	127,825
6th	Mike Meskin	119,775
7th	Madison Bergeron	118,700
8th	Robert Nahmani	112,400
9th	Allen Kessler	108,475
10th	Jack Schanbacher	108,100
Players:  283 (365) | Late registration open  |   Prize pool: TBD