Griffin, better known as Ashman103 and a famed regular in the highest-stakes games online, had a huge day at the felt to bag up 253,700 for the overall chip lead heading into Day 2.
Mizrachi, one of poker’s all-time winningest tournament players, did what he does best and built a similarly big stack of 216,900 to end the day.
The Grinder will begin Day 2 trailing only Griffin and Day 1a chip leader Maxim Lobzhanidze (248,900) and in position for yet another deep tournament run.
Phelps Makes Splash; Ivey Barely Survives
With 649 runners today (making for a total of 987 all told), the field was packed with notables looking to make some noise and several did.
Big-time pros Greg Mueller (181,100), Shawn Buchanan (129,000), Olivier Busquet (128,600), Steve O’Dwyer (125,700) and Joe Serock (125,000) joined Griffin and Mizrachi in the top 10.
Vets Owen Crowe, Chris Klodnicki, Carlos Mortensen, Matt Waxman and newly minted PokerStars pro Jake Cody also all built good-size stacks, but perhaps the biggest name hovering just off the lead group is one Michael Phelps.
The greatest Olympian of all time is playing his first-ever $10k poker major and the 22-time medallist more than held his own, taking down several nice pots and bagging up 92,000 in chips to end the day.
Other notables solidly in the pack heading to Day 2 include Dan Smith, Griffin Benger, Cherish Andrews, Jesse Sylvia and 2012 WSOP Main Event champ Greg Merson.
Barely hanging on to see tomorrow were Phil Hellmuth (24,800), Daniel Negreanu (11,500) and Phil Ivey (5,600).
Action picks up for Day 2 tomorrow at noon with a combined field of 536 returning players.
The Top 10 in chips:
1. Ashton Griffin 253,700 2. Maxim Lobzhanidze 248,900 3. Michael Mizrachi 216,900 4. Gilbert Diaz 215,900 5. Darren Elias 191,000 6. Paul Volpe 186,200 7. Greg Mueller 181,100 8. Simon Higgins 181,100 9. Nicholas Godoy 173,100 10. Giacomo Fundaro 165,700Follow along with live updates on the PokerStars blog. Look for a couple of exclusive features from the PCA here on PokerListings tomorrow.
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