The first of two Day 1s played out on Friday in the PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) stop in Los Angeles at the Bicycle Casino. A field of 330 players turned out and even more are expected to descend upon the California card room when Day 1B begins this afternoon at 1:00pm PT.
Online poker pro Nick Grippo leads the field after Day 1A with a stack of 235,100. One of the first eliminations of Friday’s play belonged to PokerStars sponsored pro Barry Greenstein, who flopped top pair and rain into middle set. Greenstein received no help on the turn or river and exited a few hands later. The three-time bracelet winner had to take down the name and address of the player who knocked him out, as he did not have a copy of his book “Ace on the River” on-hand to sign.
Just like at the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event final table, Soi Nguyen’s stay in NAPT LA was short-lived. He was out after about four hours when a player holding a set of threes cracked his pocket aces. No saving ace fell from there and Nguyen, the lone amateur at this year’s Main Event final table, headed for the exit.
Freshly un-retired online poker pro Shaun Deeb departed after an opponent hit a full house on the river with pocket threes. The board read A-J-6-3-6 and Deeb exposed a six before heading to the rail. According to coverage found on PokerStars, one of the game’s top internet players decreed “I’m done, see ya” and promptly departed. Following Deeb out the door was PokerStars pro Liv Boeree, who ran pocket jacks into two players with A-K and one with A-X on her final hand.
Jason Mercier hit a flush on the turn and dodged a higher flush draw on the river to scoop a major pot in the final minutes of play on Friday. Mercier bagged up the 10th largest stack at 173,200 when all was said and done. The WSOP bracelet winner and European Poker Tour (EPT) champ took down the NAPT Mohegan Sun Bounty Shootout for nearly $500,000.
Female sensation Annette Obrestad busted after running pocket kings into Isaac Haxton’s A-Q. Haxton spiked a wheel on the river and Obrestad was eliminated. Also ousted on Friday from NAPT LA were 2004 WSOP Main Event champ Greg Raymer, 2010 November Niner Joseph Cheong, Full Tilt Red Pro Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger, Lauren Kling, and PokerStars Canadian pro Pat Pezzin.
Now that we’ve rattled off a list of players who didn’t make it past Day 1A, let’s take a look at the top of the leaderboard after the first nine levels of action on Friday:
1. Nick Grippo – 235,100
2. Tom Middleton – 229,100
3. Scott Fischman – 224,600
4. Clint Coffee – 202,900
5. Romulus Segal – 190,700
6. Cary Katz – 184,000
7. Ryan Welch – 183,100
8. Jake Toole – 181,200
9. Richard Munro – 179,100
10. Jason Mercier – 173,200
Other pros who remain and sit in the top 50 on the leaderboard include:
14. Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki – 130,500
18. Alec “traheho” Torelli – 117,700
23. Corwin “mig.com” Mackey – 102,600
24. John “The Razor” Phan – 101,400
27. Andreas Hoivold – 95,500
30. William Reynolds – 93,100
35. David Baker – 83,400
39. Olivier Busquet – 80,200
40. George Lind – 79,700
41. Justin Bonomo – 79,600
48. Isaac Haxton – 75,200
The blinds stood at 500-1,000 with an ante of 100 when play paused for the night on Day 1A. Today, the action will start from scratch for Day 1B and the survivors will convene for Day 2 on Sunday. PokerStars officials are expecting the total prize pool to pass $3 million and the field size to out-pace the 716 players who showed up the NAPT Mohegan Sun Main Event in April.