David Nicholson takes an Early Lead in Day 1 of the Seminole Hard Rock Showdown

Wednesday marked the beginning of the World Poker Tours Seminole Hard Rock Showdown in Hollywood, Florida. The second annual running of the event saw a big down-turn in participation as only 281 players registered for the $10,000 buy-in event which drew 433 players in its inaugural year.

David Nicholson finished Day 1 with the largest stack, bagging 132,300 chips at days end. Nicholson, a former World Series of Poker Circuit ring winner, got his first boost in chips eliminating Eli Elezra with a set of fours versus Elezras top two pair.

Former November Niner John Dolan was atop the leaderboard for most of the day, and finished just behind Nicholson with 120,200 in chips. The majority of that massive stack came from one hand in which he won an 110,000 chip pot when his AK cracked his opponents pocket kings in an epic suckout.