PokerStars Pro Ramdin amassed 1,070,000 chips by the end of play, over double that of second place Jamie Kaplan’s 505,000 and five or six times the average stack with over 300 big blinds. A lot of his chips came in a huge pot against two-time WSOP bracelet winner Scott Clements that saw him flop a set and hold against Clement's combo straight and flush draw.
Ramdin has $2.8 million in career live tournament earnings with his biggest year as a pro coming in 2006 when he won WPT Foxwoods. He had six cashes including a final table appearance at the 2010 World Series of Poker and started out 2011 with a side event win and main event cash at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.
Daniel Negreanu is also among the leaders in fifth place – his 360,700 is double the average stack and represents over a hundred blinds when they return for play at the 1,500/3,000 level. Alex Kamberis, David Paredes and Pat Pezzin are just some of the big names left in the top ten chip counts.
Day 1 play was divided in two day flights, with 221 advancing to Day 2. Day will play out Tuesday with 56 of the remaining 70 players reaching the guaranteed $7,500 money bubble.
The 417 entrants created a $1,921,327 prize pool with $500,000 reserved for first.
Notables not fortunate to make it through Day 2 included Allen “chainsaw” Kessler, Kathy Liebert, Dwight Pilgrim, Barry Greenstein, Amnon Filippi, Nach Barbero and NAPT LA 2010 champion Joe Tehan.
