One of the poker highlights each year has been the World Poker Tour’s $25,000 buy-in championship event that takes place at the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas. The hefty price-tag brings out the best of the best in the poker world, as they battle it out for one of the richest prizes in poker.

Day 1 of the event saw 161 players take to the felt (registration will remain open until 5PM on Day 2 of the event) and of those 161 players, 138 will be back for Day 2. Tournament officials expect roughly 200 total players to enter the event, creating a prize-pool of $5 million. Last year’s tournament saw 338 players enter the tournament, so even one of the most popular and prestigious tournaments in poker isn’t immune to the current down-tick in attendance (especially in the US).

The current chip-leader is Shawn Buchanan with 388,600 chips. A bevy of big name players follow Buchanan including: David Benyamine -291,275, Brian Lemke – 298,825, Yevgeniy Timoshenko – 277,375, Phil Ivey – 230,250, Prahlad Friedman – 204,000, Beth Shak – 189,725, Eric Froehlich – 182,300, Martin de Knijff – 166,425, Amit Makhija – 158,150, Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy – 149,400, Alex “AJKHoosier1” Kamberis – 143,025, Robert Mizrachi – 142,300, David Chiu – 140,950, Justin Bonomo – 139,000, and Isaac Haxton – 125,125.

Tags: bellagio, WPT, WPT Bellagio, WPT Championship, WPT News

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