First Day Of WSOP Main Event Brings In 943 Players

The first day of the World Series of Poker's Main Event drew in 943 players, a number that is smaller than what was expected by the tournament's organizers.

The Main Event is an exclusive tournament, with a buy in amount of $10,000 which keeps a lot of amateur players out. Last year the event drew in 6,598 players, and although the numbers are lower than expected, WSOP officials believe they will draw in more than 7,000 by the time the first three days have been set.

Ending out the first day, Kansas native Evan Panesis was the chip leader with 190,000 chips, with Nick Crisp ending the day in second place with 184,075.

Some of the well known names to make it through the first day were Kevin Pollack, Ronnie Bardah, Kristen Bicknell, Dominik Nitsche, Elio Fox, Olivier Busquet, Nick Maimone, Dan O'Brien, Ivan Demidov, Rep Porter, Andy Black, Elisabeth Hille, Mike Matusow, Kenny Tran, Mike Sexton, John Henigan, Brian Rast, and Dwyte Pilgrim.

Big names who busted out early included: Abe Mosseri, T.J. Cloutier, Mike McDonald, Raymond Rahme, celeb player Jason Alexander, Justin Bonomo, David Steicke, Leo Wolpert, Andy Bloch, Chino Rheem, Gavin Smith and Soi Nguyen.