But it was last year's man of the hour, Dan Colman, who rose to the top of the counts in the $111k High Roller for One Drop.
After a 57-event wait Phil Ivey finally made his debut at the 2015 WSOP, drawn from the cash games in Macau/Vegas by the $111k High Roller for One Drop.
But it wasn't a particularly long appearance. After clashing with Brian Hastings and losing an early hand Ivey eventually hit the rail in Level 11 with barely a ripple.
Colman, meanwhile, picked up exactly where he left off from his $22m year in 2014 by bagging the overall chip lead heading into Day 2
135 Players, $14m Prize Pool, $3.9m to Winner
All told 135 players bought in to the highest buy-in tourney on offer at the 2015 WSOP.
The prize pool capped out at $14,249,925 with $3,989,985 set aside for the winner.
Sixteen players in total will get paid and over $750,000 was donated to the ONE DROP foundation.
Forty-six players are through to Day 2 today lead by Colman who bagged up 1,955,000 in chips.
Sorel Mizzi, Andrew Lichtenberger and Phil Hellmuth also bagged up Top 10 stacks while Jason Somerville, Jason Koon and Paul Volpe moved through at the bottom of the counts.
Play resumes at 1 pm on Monday with plans to play down to a winner, although deep stacks may make a third day necessary.
Follow the live updates right here. The current Top 10:
1. Dan Colman 1,955,000
2. Sorel Mizzi 1,935,000
3. Andrew Lichtenberger 1,770,000
4. Sergey Lebedev 1,590,000
5. Andrew Robl 1,585,000
6. Christoph Vogelsang 1,435,000
7. Phil Hellmuth 1,395,000
8. Tobias Reinkemeier 1,285,000
9. Darren Elias 1,180,000
10. James Calderaro 1,165,000
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