Steven Weiss Tops Day 1 of WSOP Event #28

American Steven Weiss leads the way after Day 1 of the $2,500 buy-in Four-Handed No-Limit Hold’em event #28 at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas.

The Vegas-based pro tops the charts on 171,000 chips, while fellow Sin City players Brian Rast (168,400) and Tony Dunst (162,800) follow in second a third place respectively at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino.

A total of 750 players entered the event – creating a prize pool of $1,706,250 – but only 86 survived to make it into Day 2. That just six places short of the money in this inaugural four-max tournament at the WSOP, with all chasing down the $392,476 top prize and gold bracelet.

Phil Ivey Misses Out… Again

Incredibly, after just six levels, more than two-thirds of the starting line-up had been eliminated, including players such as 2009 main event champ Joe Cada, Aaron Jones, David Vamplew, Daniel Negreanu, Marvin Rettenmaier, Jason Mercier, Phil Ivey, Jon Aguiar, John Juanda, JC Tran, John Racener, Sorel Mizzi, Lauren Kling, Shaun Deeb, Chance Kornuth, Erik Seidel, Carter Phillips, Liv Boeree, Jason Somerville, Melanie Weisner, Dan Smith, Chris Klodnicki, Allen Bari, Terrence Chan and Pratyush Buddiga.

Play settled down somewhat following the dinner break, with Rast taking down a huge pot against Ohio’s Byron Kaverman in level 9. Last year’s Poker Players champ made a full house, queens full of tens, on the river to beat Kaverman’s sevens full of queens. Rast check-raised all-in during this hand, with Kaverman tanking for more than five minutes before calling to hit the rail in dramatic fashion.

Shankar Pillai Enjoys Good Day

New York State’s Shankar Pillai (sixth on 130,000) climbed to the top of the chips leaderboard early in the day and remained there – even though he had Jake Cody directly to his left- while other notable pros returning for Day include Sam Stein (fourth on 154,200), Jason Koon (fifth on 139,000), Darryll Fish (seventh on 125,700), Lex Veldhuis (17th on 102,200), Joe Tehan (19th on 96,600) and Isaac Haxton (46th on 49,500).

The money bubble should burst fairly early today in the Orange Section of the Rio’s Amazon Room, with 80th place picking up $4,385.

WSOP 2012 Event #28 Day 1 Top 10 Placings

1. Steven Weiss (USA) – 171,000

2. Brian Rast (USA) – 168,400

3. Tony Dunst (USA) – 162,800

4. Sam Stein (USA) – 154,200

5. Jason Koon (USA) – 139,000

6. Shankar Pillai (USA) – 130,000

7. Darryll Fish (USA) – 125,700

8. Mustapha Kanit (Italy) – 121,120

9. John Andress (USA) – 119,400

10. Daniel Hirleman (USA) – 116,000