Michael Dyer Bags Big Lead After Day 1a of $3,500 Main Event
It was a star-studded field for Day 1a of the $3,500 Main Event at the 2023 Wynn Millions festival being held at the Wynn/Encore Poker Room. A total of 342 entries were recorded and the field was whittled down to just 98 players advancing to Day 2ab on Monday, March 6.
When the dust settled around the midnight hour, it was Michael Dyer who comfortably held the chip lead with a massive stack of 516,000 chips. Dyer was in control of the lead for most of the second half of the day, and continued to collect chips as the night dragged on. The American poker pro can often be seen playing the mid-stakes events throughout the United States along with many online events. However, Dyer put his name on the poker map with a third-place finish at the 2018 WSOP Main Event where he earned his lone seven-figure payday of $3,750,000.
It wasn't all fun and games for Dyer as he was forced to use a second bullet early in the day. On the very first hand in the opening level, Dyer was put to the test for his entire stack by Eric Baldwin. Dyer opted to lay his hand down on the river but with half of his stack gone already, he was soon off to the registration desk for a reentry. Dyer made the most of his fresh stack of 40,000 chips, quickly spinning it up at a new table.
When the players return for Day 2ab, he will be joined by other big stacks including Raj Ramakrishnan who accumulated the second largest stack of 378,000. Nick Palma (368,500), Justin Liberto (362,500), and Scott Eskenazi (323,500) all had very successful days as well, having to just use one entry apiece.
Top 10 Leaderboard from Day 1a
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Dyer | United States | 516,000 |
| 2 | Raj Ramakrishnan | United States | 378,000 |
| 3 | Nick Palma | United States | 368,500 |
| 4 | Justin Liberto | United States | 362,500 |
| 5 | Andrew Lim | United States | 340,000 |
| 6 | Scott Eskenazi | United States | 323,500 |
| 7 | Matthew Wantman | United States | 306,500 |
| 8 | Chan Woo Kim | United States | 301,000 |
| 9 | Eric Baldwin | United States | 299,500 |
| 10 | Andrew Moreno | United States | 267,000 |
Many players were forced to the registration desk on multiple occasions throughout the day with an unlimited number of reentries and late registration open until the start of level 9. Among those were Chino Rheem who used four entries but finally managed to bag a stack of 96,500. Ren Lin, on the other hand, used four entries but was eliminated in the last level of the night, and will have to return for another flight if he wishes to advance.
The cards will be back in the air at 12 p.m. local time tomorrow for a much-anticipated Day 1b where the field is expected to be even larger. Another ten levels will be on tap for Day 1 with all of the players advancing to the same Day 2ab on Monday. Overall, it was a great turnout for the first flight in the Main Event that is on pace to crush the guaranteed prize pool of $3,000,000.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be here with you all of the way to provide all of the latest updates and hand histories throughout the event.