Matveichuk Claims Day 1a Chip Lead in the WPT500; Odeen Also in Top Five
Day 1a of the partypoker WPT500 has just come to an end with 59 players out of 393 entries making it through to Day 2 on Monday, March 15 at 8:05 p.m. GMT who will battle it out for a share of at least $1,000,000.
Roman Matveichuk claims the Day 1a chip lead with 10,131,678 chips. He is followed by Pedro Jorge, Gustavo Masteletto , Ewald Mahr Olivera, and Jerry Odeen in the top five of the counts.
Other familiar names who have bagged "virtual" chips include Justin Ouimette, Kenny Hallaert, Josip Simunic, Sylvain Loosli, Daniel Smiljkovic, Tomas Jozonis, Joakim Andersson (who won The High Roller Big Game earlier tonight), Preben Stokkan, and Andres Korn.
When play resumes on Day 2, the first level of the day will feature a small blind of 25,000, a big blind of 50,000, and a running ante of 6,250 and the levels will increase to 16 minutes. Play will continue until the final table has been reached.
partypoker WPT500 Day 1a Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roman Matveichuk | Russia | 10,131,678 | 203 |
| 2 | Pedro Jorge | Malta | 9,508,747 | 190 |
| 3 | Gustavo Masteletto | Brazil | 9,130,880 | 183 |
| 4 | Ewald Mahr Olivera | Peru | 8,135,585 | 163 |
| 5 | Jerry Odeen | Sweden | 7,499,188 | 150 |
| 6 | James Rann | United Kingdom | 6,516,897 | 130 |
| 7 | Breixo González Pe?a | Mexico | 6,228,084 | 125 |
| 8 | Rick Hutting | Netherlands | 6,133,970 | 123 |
| 9 | Dominykas Mikolaitis | Lithuania | 5,844,969 | 117 |
| 10 | Nino Ullmann | Austria | 5,389,008 | 108 |
Day 1b-1h shuffle up and deal at 8:05 p.m. between March 8-14. The final flight is a turbo Day 1 at the slightly earlier time of 5:05 p.m. GMT on March 15. It follows the same format as the other flights, except it plays to a seven-minute clock instead of 12-minutes.
Late registration is open until the end of the 12th level and only a single re-entry per flight is permitted. You can play in as many Day 1s as you wish, but only your largest stack goes through with you to Day 2 if you progress more than once.