WSOP 2017: Chris Gellagher Leads 11 Survivors After Day 1 in Event 1; Team Polk Bags Chip Lead in Tag Team Championship, Team Agarwal Makes Day 2

The frenzy has begun with the 2017 World Series of Poker (WSOP) off to a great start with its first day in the books now and saw two exciting events kicking off i.e. Event #1: $565 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em and Event #2: $10,000 Tag Team Championship.

Chris Gellagher bagged the overnight chip lead in Event 1 with 519,000 chips and the 11 survivors will return tomorrow to play down to the first bracelet winner of the series tomorrow.

Team Polk (Doug Polk, Ryan Fee, Jason Mo and Michael Finstein) were the other chip leaders in the first-ever Tag Team Championship bracelet event held at WSOP bagging a stack of 240,600. Recently signed PokerMet pro Shuchi Chamaria Agarwal along with her better half Team PokerStars pro Aditya Agarwal and teammates Chris Dombrowski & Jim Collopy made a strong start at the series by sailing through to Day 2 in Event 2 with 178,400 in chips.

Event #1: $565 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em

Casino employees from around the globe battled it out in the first coveted gold bracelet of the 2017 series which previously saw a Las Vegas sports book writer and cashier from Caesars Palace – Christopher ‘CJ’ Sand earning $75,157 after topping the 731 entry-field.

This year, the event attracted a total of 651 entries taking the prize pool to $325,500 with the top finisher getting the lion’s share of $68,817. At the end of the game’s play only 11 players remain, who will now continue action on Day 2 tomorrow with the hopes of capturing the first bracelet of 2017.

The action picked up quickly with a slew of eliminations in the initial couple of hands itself and that set the pace for the entire day. The event saw 98 players making in the money and some who managed to cash include 2015 WSOP Casino Employees Event champion Brandon Barnette (20th place – $1,874), Christian Percevecz (37th place – $1,351), Christopher Womack (47th place – $1,182), and Kenji Ikeda (85th place – $856).

At the end of the day, Chris Gellagher emerged as the strongest stack and will head into Day 2 with 519,000. This is Gellagher’s first cash in a WSOP event and he will look to seal the title tomorrow. Close behind Chris Solomon bagged 513,000 followed by Jermel Stephens who ended the day with 418,000 in chips.

End of Day 1 Chip Counts

1. Chris Gellagher – 519,000
2. Chris Solomon – 513,000
3. Jermel Stephens – 418,000
4. Alex Cordova – 348,000
5. Victor Kim – 323,000
6. Bryan Hollis – 290,000
7. Adem Arbuckle – 243,000
8. Vincent Russell – 216,000
9. Josh Clanton – 172,000
10. Haviv Bahar – 145,000
11. Nathan Bolinger – 77,000

Event #2: $10,000 Tag Team Championship

The second event of the series was the Tag Team Championship, where teams from all over the planet took their seats to battle it out for the coveted gold bracelet. The Teams Event had made its WSOP debut last year with the $1,000 Tag Team No-Limit Hold’em event, which marked the first the format was hosted by the WSOP and was well received by players.

A total of 102 teams signed up for the event and by the end of the day’s play, exactly half among them managed to make it through.

Team Polk comprising of Doug Polk, Ryan Fee, Jason Mo and Michael Finstein emerged the chip leaders bagging 240,600 in chips.

Team PokerMet pro Shuchi Chamaria Agarwal was also seen in action joining hands with her better half and the only PokerStars Pro from India Aditya Agarwal along with two previous bracelet winners i.e. Jim Collopy and Chris Dombrowski. Team Agarwal survived the day and were among the top 10 stacks with 178,400 in chips!

Shuchi posted about her team through a social media post –

Aditya too regularly updated about their tournament journey with a couple of social media posts –

The most decorated Olympian of all time and 23-time gold medalist Michael Phelps joined Antonio Esfandiari, Brian Rast and Jeff Gross to form an impressive squad but could not survive the day. Another notable team was Team Deeb (Shaun Deeb, Scott Seiver, Daniel Weinman, and Mike Gorodinsky who managed a decent stack at a point but couldn’t make it to the next day.

Top 10 Chip Stacks at the End of Day 1

1. Doug Polk – 240,600
2. Christopher Staats – 216,400
3. JC Tran – 207,000
4. Stephen Chidwick – 204,500
5. Jack Salter – 192,300
6. Javier Gomez – 191,100
7. Dietrich Fast – 187,100
8. Michael Gathy – 183,000
9. Shuchi Chamaria – 178,400
10. Paul Snead – 157,000

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