Fireworks Fly as Zack, Deeb & Hellmuth All Progress on Day 1 of Event #28: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em
The dust has settled after 10 hours of play and Day 1 of Event #28: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em is officially history. Today’s event was the first of its kind at the World Series of Poker, with 20,000-chip starting stacks and 40-minute levels throughout the entire tournament. The result was a staggering 2,479 participants. Due to the accelerated structure of the event, the tournament made it into the money at the very end of the day. In total, there were 372 players who made it into the money and 346 who advanced to Day 2.
When play finished for the evening, Giuseppe Pantaleo was the overnight chip leader with 498,000 chips, with Steve McNally his nearest challenger with 442,500. Pantaleo and McNally were followed by plenty of other players who will progress with genuine hopes of winning the tournament or at the very least going on a deep run. Other big stacks to make Day 2 include Yang Zhang, (418,500), Iaron Lightbourne, (398,000), Jacob Naumann, (370,500), and Phong ‘Turbo’ Nguyen, (333,000).
Perhaps the most exciting hand of the tournament occurred near the end of the night when play was hand-for-hand. Recent WSOP bracelet winner Dan Zack called a reraise all in on a 
flop with 
against the 
of Syed Ali Mustafa. Zack hit a 
runout on turn and river to make a flush and after both stacks were counted, he covered Mustafa by just 1,500 to sent him home on the bubble. Zack ended the day with 372,000, and further increased his chances of becoming the 2019 WSOP Player of the Year, a race he leads by some margin already.
Many other notable players advanced on Day 1, such as Ryan Laplante (321,000), Shaun Deeb, (252,000), Tim West, (231,000), Phil Hellmuth, (160,500), and Jeff Madsen, (84,000).
Day 2 will resume Wednesday at noon local time with blinds returning to 2,500/5,000 with a 5,000 big blind ante. Levels will be 40 minutes each and play is scheduled to continue until the final six players remain. There will be 15-minute breaks every three levels, or two hours of play, with a 60-minute dinner break after the ninth level of play in the day. The PokerNews team will be covering all the drama from start to finish, so stay tuned to catch all the action from the latest low buy-in, high excitement event at the 50th annual World Series of Poker.
, securing the knockout for Hellmuth. "Ah, the queen! Nice hand, Phil!" said his opponent as he got up from his seat. Hellmuth was silent as he raked in the pot.
versus another player who was all in with 
. The board read 
and getting called by another player's 
.
-offsuit and Keeline called with 
. Kassela bet the remainder of his chips, which was around two-and-a-half times the size of the pot, on a flop of 
and Keeline now finds himself with a healthy stack.
flop and Affleck made a continuation-bet of 1,500. His opponent raised to 3,500 and he thought about his decision for a few seconds before making the call. The turn was 
and Affleck collected the pot as his opponent collected his belongings and left the table.
