Alex Bolotin on Top After Day One of $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em

Brooklyn-based Alex Bolotin takes the chip lead into day two of the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas after last night’s 10 levels.

Bolotin holds 129,800 in chips, to be followed closely by Germany’s Sebastian Winkler (123,800) and Las Vegas pro Jonathan Little (120,300), while Brazilian Adolfo Pereira De Souza (94,500) will be hoping to emulate countryman Andre Akkari after the 36-year-old pro lifted the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em title and $675,117 last night.

Additionally, London’s Laurence Houghton (91,200) will look to add to Britain’s three gold bracelets at this year’s WSOP as the starting field of 2,713 was cut back to just 370 survivors in the race to pick up the $650,223 top prize in the Amazon Room of the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino.

Also moving on to the second day are players such as Gary Gates, Lauren Kling, Matt Stout, Leo Wolpert, Soi Nguyen, Josh Tieman, JJ Liu, Chino Rheem, David Singer, Erik Cajelais, Sorel Mizzi and Yevgeniy Timoshenko.

However, with such a massive entry list, we did lose other big-name pros, including Liv Boeree, Isaac Haxton, Jean-Robert Bellande, Neil Channing, Justin Bonomo, Rob Mizrachi, Adam Junglen, David ‘Bakes’ Baker, Chris Moneymaker, Phil Hellmuth, Carlos Mortensen and Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan.

New Jersey’s Dwan – always one who enjoys multitasking – played in three events yesterday as took part in the opening levels of this event, before moving on to day two of the $2,500 Omaha/Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better event.

He then returned to this event during a break in the mixed tournament, before again coming back after busting out of the hi-low. However, he also crashed out of the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em poker tournament to focus on the $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit) event. Phew!

Top 10 chip leaders after day one of the WSOP 2011 $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event:

1. Alex Bolotin (USA) – 129,800

2. Sebastian Winkler (Germany) – 123,800

3. Jonathan Little (USA) – 120,300

4. Adolfo Pereira De Souza (Brazil) – 94,500

5. Laurence Houghton (UK) – 91,200

6. Corey Burbick (USA) – 90,500

7. Michael Bisutti (USA) – 89,000

8. Eugene Castro (USA) – 88,300

9. Christopher Gonzales (USA) – 87,200

10. Christopher Valenzuela (USA) – 87,000