Phil Hellmuth didn’t play a single hand on Day 1 of the World Poker Tour Festa al Lago on Wednesday. Rather than skip his customary first level or two the Poker Brat, along with Howard Lederer, took the entire first day off after Bellagio tournament director Jack McLelland announced that registration would be open until the end of Level 8 - which should happen on Thursday around 5 pm Las Vegas time.

The late registration decision has opened the doors for the 2009 field to come close to the 2008 field of 368 players. A total of 244 players showed up on Wednesday and actually played the early levels.

One player who is over-the-moon happy with his decision is Mike Matusow. ”The Mouth” wound up as overall chipleader with  224,000. Mark Seif who finished the day in second with 222,425 chips at the end of Day 1’s five levels Seif joins Matusow and Jason Somerville (213,000) as the only players to break through the 200,000 chip barrier.

The $15,000 buy-in event routinely attracts a strong field and a cursory glance at the top ten Day 1 chip counts shows the likes of Phil Laak, Dutch Boyd, two-time WPT champion Jonathan Little and Eugene Katchalov. Laak’s girlfriend Jennifer Tilly made a late run to also find herself in contention.

Those who went out on Day 1 include Joe Sebok, Michael Mizrachi, Justin “BoostedJ” Smith and Daniel Negreanu. Of the 244 players who started the day a little more than 200 will return on Thursday for Day 2. That group, combined with a possible flurry of late registrants, could put the total prize pool over the $4 million mark.

WPT Festa al Lago Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts

1. Mike Matusow  -  224,200
2. Mark Seif  -  222,425
3. Jason Somerville  -  213,350
4. Joe Elpayaa  -  195,500
5. Jason Lavallee  -  187,325
6. Phil Laak  -  185,850
7. Dutch Boyd  -  176,075
8. Chino Rheem  -  172,175
9. Robert Tepper  -  163,500
10. Jonathan Little  -  162,575

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