Day 1 of Event #17: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Shoutout is in the books after 16 levels of play. This event attracted a total of 917 competitors, and by the end of the day, only 100 remained. They will combine tomorrow into ten tables to continue to battle it out.
The field was packed with stars looking for more glory and many of them managed to make it through to Round 2 including bracelet winners Joe Cada, Loni Harwood, Jennifer Tilly, Upeshka De Silva, Denis Timofeev, Athanasios Polychronopoulos, and Qui Nguyen. Other big names that made it through are Cary Katz, Nicholas Manion, Bill Klein and Kane Kalas. They will all be looking to add more gold to their collection.
Unfortunately, not all of the fan favorites who tried their luck in this event were able to make it another day. Among those who fell are fifteen-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth as well as champions Joe McKeehen, Barry Hutter, Ryan Hughes, Brandon Cantu, Byron Kaverman, Benjamin Dobson, Ryan Riess, John Racener, and Ryan Laplante. Six- time bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu couldn’t make it either.
Negreanu managed to make it through to the heads-up portion of play, which started with Caleb King having the lead over Negreanu. However, Negreanu played his best and managed to take over the lead. Despite putting up a strong fight and playing his best game for a few hours, the lead switched back, and eventually Negreanu needed to find a spot to double up. When the time came, he shoved his last 16 blinds with ace-queen against Caleb King's king-ten. King made trip tens and that was it for Negreanu.
Play resumes Friday at noon for all 100 players, and the winner of each table tomorrow will secure a spot to the final table on Day 3. Stay tuned to PokerNews for all the live updates throughout this event, and the 2019 World Series of Poker.