Event 1 (Day 2): Simmons Starting Off Strong, Grabs The Lead

"Battles At The Beach"

Event 1 ($175 No Limit Hold'em $125,000 GTD)

Level 18 (Blinds 3,000/6,000/500)

Total Entries: 1,301

Players Remaining: 156

Ronald Simmons (Highsprings, FL)

The Day 2 field has already lost (35) players since the start of play (35 minutes ago), which is exactly half the way to the money bubble.  As the shorter stacks are doing everything they can to navigate their way into the money, other players in the field are climbing up the leaderboard.  Ronald Simmons (Highsprings, FL) started the day with 276,500, and happened to be seated at a table with a large amount of chips (compared to the rest spread across the field).  Simmons got involved with another big stack (David Bell) midway through Level 17, and once the smoke cleared, Ronald had doubled through.  He now sits with over 500,000 in front of him, and is the new Event 1 chipleader.

Ronald Simmons - 530,000
David Bell - 130,000