Day 1b of the Event #19: THE GIANT - $365 No-Limit Hold'em attracted 1,230 entrants who created a $369,000 prize pool. The top 185 players reached the money in Level 17 and the remaining play brought many casualties to reduce the surviving field to just over 100 players.
WSOP Circuit legend Valentin Vornicu has been crushing the whole day, running over his table. Vornicu's fantastic ride continued even after his relocation to a new table, and the nine-time ring winner eventually finished with 869,500, putting his name atop of the Day 1b leaderboard.
"Last week I fired three entries, and I played three hands total," Vornicu revealed his unique performance from Day 1a. Today was a completely different story for the former International Mathematics Olympiad bronze medalist. Originally from Bucharest, Romania, the 34-year-old professional poker player now lives in San Diego.
"I always bag big in the $365 tournaments," said Vornicu, whose results in these events have been stellar through his career.
Vornicu is yet to win a bracelet but he's already notched a respectable result on the WSOP main series, too. Last year, Vornicu went deep in the Main Event, finishing in 23rd place for a career-best $269,430.
Other notable player who thrived on Day 1b was Eric Baldwin, who has 547,500. Baldwin has already been decorated with a WSOP bracelet. He has amassed more than $5.2 million in live tournament cashes.
Among those who will be back for Day 2 on July 8 are also Dinn Nguyen (494,000), Danny Goncalves (472,000), Louis Russo (468,000), Aditya Agarwal (260,000), "Captain" Tom Franklin and Jan Nakladal (144,000).
Todd Brunson, Kathy Liebert, Alex Keating and Roland Israelashvili might have another shot in the remaining flights as they all fell during the last few hands of today's play.
Three more starting flights are scheduled for THE GIANT, across the next three Fridays as Day 1c takes place on June 23 and Day 1d on June 30 while the last chance to make it through will be on Day 1e (July 7).