Day 1a Concludes with Leah in the Lead
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Day 1a of the World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event here at the Horseshoe Hammond Casino is complete, and after 12 hours of grueling poker, Mike Leah is your chip leader with 276,100 chips.
A total of 835 players bought in for $1,675, which is an 8.5% decline from 2011, but we’re still well on pace to smash the four-figure threshold. Among those entrants were notables Isaac Baron, Ryan Julius, Steve Karp, Harrison Gimbel, Amanda Musumeci, Faraz Jaka, Dan Heimiller and our very own Chad Holloway. Unfortunately, none of those players advanced, and we expect to see them back in the theatre on Day 1b.
Nick Jivkov, who won 2012 WSOP Event 5: $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em and final tabled this event in 2010, was live multi-tabling today. Jivkov was at the final table of a $365 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo tournament, but decided to hop in the Main Event anyway. Jivkov was eliminated when he ran ace-king into Dale Robinson’s pocket kings, and the board ran out 
.
Not to worry though – Jivkov took down the Omaha event, pocketing $16,046 for his efforts.
Another player we lost during play was 86-year old World War II veteran Richard Decowski. Decowski was one of the first players to cross the six-figure mark, but he went on to lose a massive pot with pocket jacks against an opponent’s pocket queens. A few levels later, Decowski was eliminated when he moved all in with 
. Steve Terrile looked him with two kings, and held.
Our chip leader Leah jumped out of the gate fast, running his stack up to 70,000 chips before the first break, and continued to trend upward. The Canadian pro was gifted a big pot in Level 12, when an opponent moved all in for more than a pot-sized bet on a flop of 
. Leah quickly called with 
, which crushed his opponent’s 
, and the turn and river came 
, 
respectively.
Mukul Pahuja also had a very nice day. Right off of the bat he was aggressive, and faced with a raise from Owais Ahmed and a call from another opponent he three-bet to 2,600 on the button. Pahuja received one call, and the flop fell 
. Pahuja’s opponent led for 4,000, and Pahuja quickly raised to 10,600. His opponent mucked, and Pahuja raked in the pot.
Pahuja finished the day right behind Leah with 261,400 chips.
Other notable players who survived the day include, Danny Johnson, Aaron Steury, Mark Maletic, Joe Kuether, Kennii Nguyen, Jacob Bazeley, Eric Crain, Nick Grippo, and Jeff Fielder.
Day 1b will begin tomorrow at noon local time, and run for 15 levels just like Day 1a. Both fields will combine on Sunday at noon local time. Make sure you keep it locked to PokerNews.com for all of your up-to-the-minute live updates from this and every other Main Event on the World Series of Poker Circuit.
Good night from Hammond!