WSOP 2011: Rick Romine is Front-Runner Following Day One of the $1,500 No-Limit Holdem Event

Rick Romine leads the $1,500 No-Limit Holdem event after day one on 176,100 chips following the elimination of 2,151 entrants to leave just 349 for this evening’s play.

Front-runner Romine might be facing a whole host of big-name pros on day two at this event, but he has certainly given himself a great chance for a shot at the gold bracelet and a whopping $599,153 for finishing first.

Somewhere around the midway point of the opening day, Romine became the first competitor to move above the 100,000-chip mark and continued his upward surge to leave second-placed Mexican Roberto Watanabe way behind on 157,400.

Day two is normally pretty stressful for many of the players as the money bubble approaches and entrants begin eyeing up the cash, but it will be interesting to see how Romine copes during the first few hours as players such as Peter Feldman, David Pham, Matt Affleck, Andy Frakenberger, Drazen Ilich and Amnon Filippi challenge his chip lead.

This sextet have great experience of fighting through what is known as the ‘moving day’, so railbirds can expect the action to become fast and furious as they attempt to garner healthy chips counts for day three.

However, numerous stars failed to even get past day one, with the likes of Eric Baldwin, Phil Laak, Freddy Deeb, Jonathan Duhamel, Tony Dunst, Justin Young, Michael Mizrachi, Galen Hall, and Liv Boeree crashing out.

They were joined by renowned Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) announcer Bruce Buffer, who actually had the chip lead early in the day before seeing his stack slowly collapse.

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

1. Richard Romine (USA) – 176,100

2. Roberto Watanabe (Mexico) – 157,400

3. Scott Poling (USA) – 128,000

4. Phillip Delaney (USA) – 102,200

5. Benjamin Vinson (UK) – 102,100

6. George Jalkotzy (Canada) – 98,200

7. Matt Graham (USA) – 93,300

8. Ty Reiman (USA) – 90,800

9. Martin Kabrhel (Czech Republic) – 90,700

10. Joshua Schoonover (USA) – 88,900