657 players reach Day 2 including actor Pollak and NHL goalie Luongo
Actor Kevin Pollak, the Luongo brothers and defending World Series of Poker champion Pius Hienz were among the 657 players who survived Saturday’s first of three Main Event starting flights.
The group will return to the Rio Tuesday for the second day of competition in the $10,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em World Championship.
Two more starting fields will invade the Rio Sunday and Monday.
Following some 12 hours of play Saturday that featured a starting field of 1,066 players, William John of Austria held onto first place with 266,700 chips.
Rounding out the top five were Gerardo Lubas of the Philippines with 165,800 in chips; Daniel Strelitz of Torrance, Calif., with 164,125 in chips; Dane Lomas of San Diego with 157,600; and Cary Katz of Las Vegas with 154,850.
The Luongo brothers, including NHL standout goalie Robert Luongo of the Vancouver Canucks, were among the amateur players who survived Day 1A.
Roberto Luongo, who was sponsored by the British Columbia Lottery Corp., was in 297th place with 44,800 in chips. Brother Fabio Luongo fared a little better, holding on to 111th place with 77,825 in chips.
Pollak, who has starred in such films as “Casino,” “A Few Good Men” and “The Usual Suspects,” is playing in the Main Event to help promote the free play website HollywoodPoker.com. He survived Day 1A in 305th place with 43,900 in chips.
Heinz, a 22-year-old college student from Cologne, Germany, who earned $8.7 million in winning the Main Event a year ago, almost didn’t make it past Day 1A this year.
Heinz spent most of his day with a short stack of chips, but was able to double up toward the end of play and grew his stack to 39,275, good for 351st place.
Day 1A wasn’t so good for 12-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth Jr.
Unlike past years, Hellmuth made a quiet, subdued entrance to the event, shunning some elaborate costume or Hollywood-production style get-up. Hellmuth originally registered for Monday’s Day 1C, but tweeted that after getting more than 14 hours of sleep, he was ready to play.
However, Hellmuth was eliminated in the last level of the night.
Among the players returning for Day 2 include former Main Event finalist Filippo Candio of Italy and Poker Hall of Fame member Mike Sexton.
Among the players eliminated Saturday were actor Ray Romano, 2010 World Series of Poker Player of the Year Frank Kassela and former Main Event final table finishers Raymond Rahme and Soi Nguyen.
Three former Main Event Champions were also eliminated: Hellmuth (1989), Jim Bechtel (1993) and Joe Hachem (2005).