Mory Little on Top After Day 1D of the WSOP 2011 Main Event

An incredible 2,802 players signed up for Day 1D of the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Championship main event of the World Series of Poker (WSOP), with American Mory Little sitting on 179,450 chips as our leader from the fourth opening day in Las Vegas.

Charlotte’s Maynard “Mory” Little is followed by Ben Mintz (176,875), of Massachusetts, Florida’s Raj Vohra (167,450), Dax Mellon (162,325), of Ohio, and Antony Lellouche (155,200), of France, from the 1,874 survivors – meaning 928 players were eliminated to leave us with 2,490 players starting Day 2B tomorrow after Day 1B’s 616 survivors have been added.

Day 1D at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino was the biggest of the four opening days and appeared to attract the most action, too, in the Amazon and Pavilion Rooms, with eliminations arriving swiftly.

Some noteworthy failures included David Williams, Antonio Esfandiari, Owais Ahmed, Alexander Kravcheko, Ivan Demidov, Angel Guillen, Jennifer Tilly, Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier, Melanie Weisner, Tom Marchese, Frank Kassela – last year’s Play of the Year – William Reynolds, John Juanda, James Mackey, Steve Zolotow, Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan, Chino Rheem, Michael Binger and Prahlad Friedman, as well as rap superstar Nelly – whose real name is Cornell Haynes, Jr.

Also, last year’s November Niners John Dolan and Jason Senti were sent to the rail early to join Michael Mizrachi – who was ousted on Day 1B – as the three fallers from the 2010 final table.

However, while poker fans saw many big names eliminated, many more pros made it to tomorrow’s Day 2B field that will see ???? players, including previous main event runners-up Darvin Moon (43,675) and Steve Dannenmann (59,050), as well as Poker Hall of Famer Mike Sexton (49,600), Phil ‘The Unabomber’ Laak (84,675), veteran stars Freddy Deeb (109,525) and Lyle Berman (127,575), Amanda Musumeci (134,800), Lars Bonding (93,950) and Noah Boeken (78,675).

Also through to Day 2B are David Sands, Brandon Adams, Nick Schulman, Chau Giang, Shawn Buchanan, David ‘Bakes’ Baker, Jennifer Harman, Vanessa Rousso, Jeff Madsen, David Oppenheim, Joe Tehan, Joseph Cheong and Phil Galfond.

Most notably, though, former main events champions Joe Hachem (45,725), Robert Varkonyi (59,525), Berry Johnston (28,850), Jamie Gold (82,000) and Huck Seed (42,600) lived on to fight another day, as did WSOP Europe winner James Bord (26,000).

Top 10 Day 1D chip leaders at the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Championship:

1. Maynard (Mory) Little (USA) – 179,450

2. Ben Mintz (USA) – 176,975

3. Rajesh Vohra (USA) – 167,450

4. Dax Mellon (USA) – 162,325

5. Antony Lellouche (France) – 155,200

6. Sergey Altbregin (Russia) – 155,000

7. Haral Tsivicos (USA) – 147,890

8. Anthony Miller (USA) – 147,550

9. Brett Flood (USA) – 145,800

10. Jay Houston (USA) – 141,000