Islamay bagged 162,300, outpacing other end-of-day big stacks Michael Ferrell (146,000), Salsberg (135,200) and Mustapha Kanit (120,600).
Salsberg, who’s best known for producing the television show Weeds, has been on a heater over the last month, most notably winning the WPT Grand Prix de Paris for almost half a million dollars in September.
All told 320 players hit the felt today which means tomorrow’s numbers will have to be huge to match the 987-person field we saw one year ago.
In 2011 Andrey Pateychuk won this tournament for just under $1 million.
Among the 178 who survived their day 1 flight today is a long list of name-brand poker pros, including former EPT champ Mike "Timex" McDonald and Team PokerStars Pros Victor Ramdin, Mickey Petersen and Jason Mercier, who won this event its inaugural year.
Duhamel, Pescatori Among Day 1A Casualties
The first elimination of the day took just 15 minutes to occur with former EPT Vienna champion Michael Eiler on the losing end of a pocket kings against aces setup.
While many poker players claim to never fold pocket kings preflop, Jason Wheeler was able to do exactly that later in the day to avoid the calamity that befell Michael Eiler.
Wheeler folded cowboys face-up to a cold-five-bet, surviving that hand but going on to bust before the end of the day.
EPT Season 8 Grand Final champion Mohsin “chicagocards1” Charania ran into trouble early, managing to get a few chips back before busting with A-Q to jacks all-in preflop.
Also succumbing to early exits were Italian poker legend Max “The Italian Pirate” Pescatori, two-time WPT champ Jonthan Little, Shannon Shorr, 2010 PCA champ Harrison Gimbel, Canadian Sam Chartier, Dan Smith and 2010 world champion Jonathan Duhamel.
WPT champ Scott Seiver lasted until the last level of the night but got unlucky to go broke. Seiver was all-in on the turn with a set against an open-ended straight draw but couldn’t fade the eight-outer.
Tomorrow will see the second Day 1 flight play out to decide who will advance to Day 2. Keep an eye on our Poker News Section for continuing updates.
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