2022 WSOP Day 1: Hellmuth Noticeable Absentee as WSOP Kicks Off

May 31 saw the 2022 World Series of Poker (WSOP) get underway at its new home at Bally's and Paris Las Vegas on the Las Vegas Strip. Reality TV star and entrepreneur Lisa Vanderpump uttered those famous words, "Shuffle Up and Deal," and the 2022 WSOP was underway.

Day 1 of the 2022 WSOP saw two events at the opposite end of the buy-in spectrum kick off: the $500 Employees No-Limit Hold'em and the $100,000 High Roller Bounty tournament. The latter attracted some of the biggest names in poker, including the underfire Bryn Kenney, Ali Imsirovic, and Jake Schindler. However, it was the absence of 16-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth that had tongues wagging. Hellmuth was due to begin his quest for his 17th bracelet in the $100,000 bounty event but a recent trip to Mexico left Hellmuth with what he described as "travelers diarrhea," nice. Here's wishing Hellmuth a speedy recovery.

Shaun Colquhoun Leads Event #1: $500 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em

The $500 Casino Employees event drew in a crowd of 832 players, almost double the 419 entrants from the 2021 edition last fall. Only 82 of those starters remain in contention for a slice of the $349,440 prize pool and nobody has more chips than Shaun Colquhoun, who bagged up a tournament-leading stack of 885,000 chips at the close of play.

Arturo Jimenez came close to snatching the chip lead but ultimately fell short, ending his Day 1 with a most respectable 848,000 stack.

Also nicely poised for a bracelet charge is popular Belgian Kenny Hallaert. Hallaert has more than $4.5 million in live poker tournament winnings, and is hoping to add th $65,168 top prize to that tally.

Day 1 was the end of the road to the PokerNews employees who attempted to follow in Chad Holloway's footsteps, who won this event in 2013. However, the likes of Yori Epskamp, Calum Grant, and Holloway himself fell by the wayside before the money places.

Day 2 resumes at 12:00 p.m. Las Vegas time and plays until a champion is crowned.

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Event #1: $500 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em Top 10 Chip Counts

Justin Young Bags the $100,000 Bounty High Roller Chip Lead

Day 1 of Event #2 $100,000 High Roller Bounty at The 2022 WSOP at Bally's and Paris Las Vegas came to a close after 12 levels of play. As expected, the event drew some of poker’s biggest names with a total of 45 entries, which was whittled down to 15 by the day’s close.

Justin Young had a good stretch of play during the middle of the day, winning two key flips against Chris Hunichen and Laszlo Bujitas. He then enjoyed a late surge and will enter tomorrow as the chipleader with 3,500,000, thanks in large part to winning a huge pot against Alex Foxen during the last level of the night with his set of kings besting Foxen’s set of jacks.

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Phil Ivey made a return to the WSOP after missing last year's edition and had a successful day, bagging 1,975,000. A good portion of that came from a hand against Sergi Reixach in which Reixach's two pair fell to Ivey's flush.

Other notables who bagged and tagged include Daniel Negreanu (1,235,000), David Peters (3,085,000) and the 2021 WSOP Main Event Champion Koray Aldemir (2,930,000).

Play will continue on Wednesday at 12:00 p.m. Vegas time with the remaining 15 players returning in Level 13 with blinds at 20,000/40,000 with a 40,000 ante. The field is expected to grow before cards go in the air with late registration open until the start of play. The plan is to play down to the final five players and return for the Day 3 finale on Thursday.

Event #2: $100,000 High Roller Bounty Top Ten Chip Counts