January 28 2012, Kevin Taylor

The World Series of Poker Circuit kicked off its third Main Event of 2012 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on Friday. The first of two Day 1s had exceptional turnout as 308 players bought into the $1,600 event. Only 58 players survived after 15 levels of play, with Joe Kuether ending the day as the chip leader with 380,500. Jonas Mackoff was close behind with 355,000.

Kuether amassed his lead in a massive pot against Giorgio Medici. Each held about 190,000 in chips when Kuether got his all in preflop against the of Medici. The board gave Kuether a sweat, but his pair held on to move him to the top of the leaderboard. Medici was crippled and busted a short while later.

There is something to be said for the less fortunate because many of the players that hit the rail Friday are considered among the best in the world. Eric Baldwin, Steve Gross, David Williams, Justin Smith, Sam Barnhart, Tom Marchese, Scott Clements, Joe Tehan, David “Bakes” Baker and Ted Lawson all went down before the day ended. However, it is worth noting that we may see one or all of the aforementioned players on Saturday for Day 1b as the Main Event is a one-time re-entry tournament.

Two well-known pros were fortunate to survive on Day 1a. Gavin Griffin lost about half his stack early on but rebounded nicely to finish with 133,500. James Carroll, meanwhile, had his misfortune come later in the day. He started out extremely well and was the chip leader for the early part of the afternoon, but he nearly got stacked when he flopped top two pair against middle set. With some luck and patience, he was able to bag up 56,500.

Other notables that we will see on Sunday include Chip Jett, William Reynolds, Dan O’Brien, Sean Getzwiller and Allen Carter. Each of them held a steady pace throughout the day and will have healthy stacks when the fields combine on Sunday.

We’ll do it all again from the beginning on Saturday. Day 1b will start with a brand new field and play another 15 levels to complete our Day 2 flight. If the action is as faced paced Saturday as it was on Friday, you won’t want to miss anything. The cards are back in the air at 12 p.m. PST so check back in to the PokerNews Live Reporting page for all the updates you can handle.

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