Event #4, the $1,000 Stimulus Special, kicked off on Saturday with a massive crowd of nearly 3,000 players taking their shot at what will certain be a field of around 6,000 players. Both amateurs and pros alike took their shot at this first ?mega-donkament? event.
Among those in the field for the event were Chris ?Jesus? Ferguson, Vanessa Rousso, David Levi, Dustin Woolf, Ivan Demidov, Joe Sebok, Greg Mueller, Rapper Nelly, and even your trusty event recapper, James Guill.
Joe Sebok was among those knocked out early in the event as his ran A-K in pocket Queens. James Guill managed a double up in the first 10 minutes of play when he took top two pair and a nut flush draw against a flopped set of nines of an unknown player. The river completed Guill?s flush and he was sitting with around 6,400 in chips.
Hevad Khan was also an early casualty when his Q-10 flopped lucky but was still outdrawn by the A-9 of an unknown player. Adam Richardson has a new copy of Ace on the River as he knocked out Barry Greenstein with pocket threes. Rapper Nelly was soon after eliminated when his pocket kings were outdrawn by the K-Q of his opponent.
By the dinner break over 2/3rds of the field had been eliminated, leaving less than 1,000 players. After the dinner break, both Marco Traniello and Chris Ferguson hit the rail. James Guill had built his stack up to 12,000 at one point, but started to slide around Level 8. He then took a couple of bad beats to end his day. He lost most of his stack when an unknown player outdrew Guill?s pocket jacks with pocket sevens. The last hand of his day occurred during the last hand of Level 9. Guill moved all-in from late position with A-6 and was called by A-3 of another player. The flop came with a three and Guill?s day was done one level shy of the end of the day.
Play was concluded with around 7 minutes left in Level 10. Tournament officials will likely stop Day 1b around the same time or around the same number of players left. Day 1a ended with 370 players left. Jeremiah DeGreef finished the day as chip leader. He currently sits on 132,200 in chips. Other notables making their way to Day 2 include Captain Tom Franklin, Amanda Baker, David Plastik, and Brett Jungblut.
Day 2 will kick off on Monday, but there is still another Day 1 to play. Day 1b will kick off Sunday at 2 p.m. We will bring you a recap after all of the exciting action.