Joint Leaders On Top After WSOP Event #54 Day 1

Clayton Fletcher and Jonas Mackoff are joint leaders after Day 1 of the $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event #54 at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

New York’s Fletcher and Vancouver’s Mackoff hold 148,500 chips after 11 levels of play on the opening day in the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino’s Amazon Room, with just 265 players returning for Day 2 after the field was demolished from its original 3,221 starters.

The money bubble bust midway through level 11 when Russian Alex Kravchenko hit the rail in 325th place, with every other player guaranteed at least $1,942 from the $2,898,900 prize pool.

Vegas-based Dutch Boyd had a good day, too, taking charge of his table to end the opening day on 76,000 chips in 26th place, while British star Chris Moorman made a late charge to bag up in ninth on 97,400.

John Eames Back For More

Also returning today are players such as John Eames (110th on 33,500), Sofia Lovgren (82nd on 41,100), Matt Stout (114th on 33,100), Huck Seed (97th on 36,100), Justin Schwartz (32nd on 70,600), Tom McCormick (226th on 13,100), David ‘Bakes’ Baker (134th on 29,200), Sunny Chattha (131st on 29,500) and Kevin Vandersmissen (29th on 73,600).

Of course, as can be expected, numerous well-known players hit the rail early and without cashing, including Bryan Micon, Shaun Deeb, Scott Montgomery, Jon Turner, Bryan Devonshire and Faraz Jaka.

Day 2 will see all 265 players return until 10 levels are played out or nine players are left seated, whichever comes first, as they all chase the gold bracelet and top prize of $500,075.

WSOP 2012 Event #54 Day 1 Top 10

1. Clayton Fletcher (USA) – 148,500
2. Jonas Mackoff (Canada) – 148,500
3. Andrew Dean (USA) – 139,800
4. Alexander Kravchenko (Russia) – 128,400
5. Jeffrey Fielder (USA) – 111,200
6. Maurice Hawkins (USA) – 107,800
7. David Bernstein (Canada) – 103,600
8. Perati Muhamet (Italy) – 103,100
9. Chris Moorman (UK) – 97,400
10. Mikhail Aleksandrov (Russia) – 96,100