Adam Owen opened to 7,500 only to see Mike Wattel three-bet shove for 75,500. Owen made the call to put Wattel at risk. Owen drew one and Wattel stood pat.
Wattel tabled a and needed to fade Owen's draw. Owen peeled a to make a pair and Wattel scored the double up.
Mike Gorodinsky was all in for 39,800 against Xavier Kyablue with both players drawing one.
Mike Gorodinsky:
Xavier Kyablue:
Gorodinsky had the better draw, but he drew a to leave Kyablue with a myriad of outs to send Gorodinsky to the rail. As he peeled his card, he pulled a face, revealing the to pair and double Gorodinsky up.
"Not the prettiest way to double," admitted Gorodinsky.
Jean-Robert Bellande opened to 5,000 and Illya Trincher three-bet shoved over the top for about 50,000. That cleared the table and with the action back around, Bellande put his last 28,000 in the middle.
Bellande drew one and Trincher stood pat, tabling a . Bellande turned over a and drew a to double up.
After ten levels of play filled with jokes, sweats and some exciting poker, it is Galen Hall who has bagged the chip lead with 389,800 at the end of Day 1 in Event #23: $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Championship.
Hall has one WSOP cash in this format, coming back in 2012 where he cashed the $1,500 event in 32nd place. Hall is also yet to cash a WSOP event this year, but once registration closes at the start of Day 2, he will be in a prime position to record his first one.
Hall was closely followed by three-time bracelet winner Benny Glaser (352,000). Glaser min-cashed the $1,500 8-Game earlier in the day before switching to the single-game format. Glaser already has three bracelets, with one of those coming in the 2015 $1,500 2-7 Triple Draw.
Behind the pair were Timothy McDermott (304,800), Stephen Chidwick (222,800) and Dario Sammartino (212,500).
Defending champion John Monnette also bagged (90,000) along with multiple bracelet-winners John Hennigan (135,100), Billy Baxter (94,000), Erik Seidel (91,8000), Chris Ferguson (85,500) and Eli Elezra (51,400).
Other notables through to Day 2 include Scott Seiver (142,600), Mike Wattel (135,500), Jean-Robert Bellande (100,800), German professional soccer player Max Kruse (72,800), Darren Elias (70,600), Illya Trincher (42,200) and Shaun Deeb (30,100).
The first player to bust was last year's $10,000 Razz Championship runner-up Eric Kurtzman who lost out to McDermott when his pat-nine came up against his opponent's pat-eight.Frank Kassela and Mark Weitzman would also bust early on, with Kassela taking advantage of the single re-entry.
There was no runaway chip leader in the first four levels of play, with Mike Wattel, Kruse and James Chen all hovering around the double starting stack mark. It wasn't until after the second break that Alex Foxen moved clear and established himself as a real contender for chip leader after eliminating Calvin Anderson.
Glaser joined Foxen with a stack in excess of 200,000 and Hall would push the envelope further, chipping up to over 300,000 as the night drew to a close. Late entries from the likes of Shaun Deeb, Jean-Robert Bellande, Mike Leah and Chris Ferguson would make things interesting as they looked to chip up, but by the end of the night it was Hall who bagged the chip lead.
The remaining players will return tomorrow at 2 p.m. for Day 2. Registration and reentry are open until the start of the day tomorrow, so keep following PokerNews to see who else will be jumping into the action.