Break Time; Wuethrich Soars Past Wilt, Espe and Yockey to Top the Leaderboard
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The first break of Day 1a of the Main Event is upon us with players heading on a 20-minute break.
The first level of the day saw a mix of amateurs, seasoned veterans and tournament grinders take their seat here on Day 1a. Following speeches from Jack Effel and Ty Stewart, Joe Hachem put the cards in the air to honor the years that the WSOP has been at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino.
Early on, several tables would be halted as the dealer began action with an insufficient number of players. For Eric Spencer, he would turn a straight against his opponent to chip up early before his table was paused for close to 15 minutes before breaking.
2013 and 2012 Champions Ryan Riess and Greg Merson would be seated on the feature alongside Bill Perkins, while the likes of Annette Obrestad and Antonio Esfandiari would be seated on the secondary feature tables. A plethora of notables would also take their seat in this flight with the likes of Jason Mercier, Nam Le, Phil Laak, Matthew Ashton, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Tony Dunst, Billy Baxter, Mike Sexton and two-time Champion Johnny Chan just the tip of the iceberg.
Many first-timers would also take a seat in their first Main Event with "All American" Dave Swanson being one of those. Swanson - most noted for his healthy and nutritious meals that are delivered to players - stated he was living his dreams right now, and with an ounce of luck, that may turn into a new title ... 2014 WSOP Champion.
Several players would climb the leaderboard early with Debbie Espe rivering a flush against Jason Mercier, Aaron Wilt making the nut full house to double and Bryce Yockey betting out two players to chip up.
Once play closed for the level however, it would be Kent Wuethrich ending as the level chip leader after being on the positive side of a set-over-set confrontation to take an impressive 55,000 with him on break.