Niall "Firaldo" Farrell, a Scottish player with north of $2 million in cashes who won European Poker Tour Malta last year, is sitting in and has run up a big stack in the early going. He did drop one recent pot though, firing 1,550 on the turn on a board of and seeing his opponent on his left make it 3,700 to go. Farrell mucked in short order.
The most high-profile player among the runners here on Day 1a is Brian Yoon. The California native won his first bracelet in 2013 in the Little One for One Drop event, banking $663,727. He followed that up with a win in the $5,000 eight-handed event for $633,341 in 2014, final tabled the 2015 World Poker Tour World Championship (third for $330,358) and has since graduated with his winnings to the high roller scene, where he has participated in a couple of $25Ks.
The Poker Night in America crew is most famous for their televised cash games, but that could be changing as they jump into the tournament scene. Summers in Las Vegas are prime territory for drawing players, and that's what PNIA hopes to do, teaming up with the Golden Nugget for a $1,675 PNIA Main Event.
Things kick off at 11 a.m. local time in lovely downtown Las Vegas with the first of three starting flights. After the two that take place the following days, everyone who punched a Day 2 ticket will convene and play down to a televised final table. Players may reenter until the start of Level 11.
Players begin with hefty starting stacks of 30,000 and blind levels are 40 minutes throughout Day 1. Blinds begin at 50/100 and then progress to 2,500/5,000/500 by the time the night is over at the end of Level 17. Stay tuned on PokerNews as we bring you all of the live updates throughout the action.