Day 1B: Laurynas Levinskas & Matt Glantz Lead the 10 Survivors; Matt Savage Survives to Spread the Wealth

Day 1B of WPT500 Las Vegas comes to an end with 10 players remaining, and the chipleader is Laurynas Levinskas (pictured) with 550,000 in chips. Hot on his heels is Matt Glantz, who finished with 541,000.

The most interesting story of the day is perhaps WPT Executive Tour Director Matt Savage, who played today as part of a social media promotion where 10 of his Twitter followers each have a 1% stake in Savage’s earnings in this event.

“Easy money, man, easy money,” said Savage after surviving to Day 2. “Now the challenge is out to Lynn [Gilmartin] and Tony [Dunst], because we are giving up 10 percent of ourselves to 10 people on Twitter, and hopefully I can make some money for these guys. It feels good.”

Savage is on a bit of a hot streak. “Last night I was in San Jose at Bay 101, and I won an event with 70 players, so I was feeling a little better about my no-limit game. I flew in at 5:30 am this morning, did the ‘Shuffle up and deal,’ and made Day 2.”

Photo:  WPT Executive Tour Director Matt Savage was instrumental in developing the WPT500 format, and managed to survive to Day 2 with 181,000.

When asked about the WPT500 format, Savage said, “I really love the structure. I don’t know who created it, but it must be the best structure in the history of poker tournaments.”

Savage knows perfectly well who created it — he did. “I think the structure is a little quick early, which is great, you get a lot of people out. And then when you get deep into the tournament you can really play. And you saw that, when we got done to 20 we just took forever and ever. And everybody’s got a decent amount of chips, fairly deep, nobody’s out of it, so I’m excited to make Day 2.”

Today was the second of nine starting flights, and with 148 entries on Day 1A and another 181 today, the total field size is 329 and counting, with 2,000 needed to reach the guaranteed prizepool of $1 million.

The final 12.5% of each starting field finishes in the money, guaranteed at least $900 each, and the final 5% advance to Day 2. Tonight play ended right around 12:00 midnight with 34:59 remaining in Level 19, with blinds at 4,000-8,000 and a 1,000 ante.

Here are the official chip counts for the 10 survivors from Flight 1B:

1.  Laurynas Levinskas  –  550,000  (69 bb)
2.  Matt Glantz  –  541,000  (68 bb)
3.  Sergei Saakian  –  317,000  (40 bb)
4.  Dushyant Shekhawat  –  284,000  (36 bb)
5.  Alexandre Fracari  –  271,000  (34 bb)
6.  Karel Havelka  –  192,000  (24 bb)
7.  Shawn Van Asdale  –  185,000  (23 bb)
8.  Matt Savage  –  181,000  (23 bb)
9.  Steven Sanzone  –  99,000  (12 bb)
10.  Paul Jenkinson  –  94,000  (12 bb)

And here are the 13 players who were eliminated inside the money:

11th:  Salomon Eskenazi  –  $1,200
12th:  Adnan Mohammad  –  $1,200
13th:  Gary Margolis  –  $1,200
14th:  Scooter Mark  –  $1,200
15th:  Lena Evans  –  $1,200
16th:  Mark Stephen Edwards  –  $1,200
17th:  Gene Quinn  –  $900
18th:  Steven Wylie  –  $900
19th:  Ashley Sleeth  –  $900
20th:  Xavier El Fassy  –  $900
21st:  Jordan Beers  –  $900
22nd:  Tom Gropf  –  $900
23rd:  Wendy Bowers  –  $900

Day 1C begins tomorrow (Wednesday) at 11:00 am, with unlimited re-entries until registration closes around 3:30 pm. Day 2 begins on Tuesday, July 4th at 2:00 pm, and the nine-handed final table begins on Wednesday, July 5th at 2:00 pm.

Stay tuned to WPT.com for continuing coverage throughout WPT500 Las Vegas.