James Romero Leads The Way In Event #30: $1,500 Monster Stack No-Limit Hold'em
Flight 1a of Event #30: $1,500 Monster Stack No-Limit Hold'em wrapped up with 2,356 entrants coming out to play for 11 60-minute levels at The Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino. At the end of the day, it was high stakes pro James Romero bagging the most chips with 620,000.
Romero has amassed over $4,900,000 in lifetime earnings and has been a regular on the high-stakes tournament scene for years. He registered the tournament around the halfway point of the day and steadily built throughout the day. He is also a coach for PokerCoaching.com and he will be hunting for his first WSOP bracelet.
A few other bigger stacks included New York native Jeremy Shockett bagging 580,000 and Rafael Reis bagging 410,000.
The field was a star studded one, and many players amassed enough chips to make it to day two like; Joe Serock(360,000),Lily Kiletto(270,000), Chris Moorman(229,000), Bertrand Grospellier(64,000), and former WSOP Main Event Champions Qui Nguyen(220,000) and Martin Jacobson(155,000).
Not everyone can be as fortunate and day 1a saw lots of familiar faces depart early like Adrian Mateos, Sergio Aido, Jeff Platt, and three-time bracelet winnerBarry Greenstein. Maurice Hawkins was poised to have another deep run in a bracelet event, but during the last hands of the night, Hawkins’ top pair ten-kicker could not improve against top pair ace kicker. This tournament is a pure freezeout and does not allow any re-entry so unfortunately for these players, they will be unable to try again tomorrow.
Day 1b will start Saturday at 10 am and will play eleven 60-minute levels with blinds starting at 100-200 with a 200 big blind ante. The prize pool and total entrants will be finalized tomorrow. Both days will combine on Sunday, October 17th, and will play an additional three days to get to the winner.
Stay tuned to PokerNews.com to keep track of this event and more from the World Series Of Poker at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino.
, giving Serock a full house and eliminating a player.
and Qui Nguyen facing an all-in bet from his opponent of 13,200. Nguyen quickly made the call. 
securing Kessler the double. 
and the pot was checked around. 
and Angelina Rich led out from the small for 6,000 and only the big blind made the call. 
and both players checked. 
between four players, including Melanie Weisner, and with 23,300 in the middle. Duane Erskine went all in for 38,500 and the other two players folded. "Dealer," Weisner said to the dealer as she put in her stack "Hit me."
