Day 1 of Event #71: $500 Salute To Warriors is officially in the books. This event was the first of its kind as $40 of each buy-in was donated to the United Services Organization (USO), which has provided live entertainment and other services for the active military for 77 years, and other military-related charities. This historical event attracted 1,723 total entries that generated a total prize pool of $723,660 with first place taking home $121,161.
A total of 259 players were guaranteed a minimum cash of $699 and Day 1 play ended just before players made it to the money. Garry Stevens-Smith is among the top 287 remaining players after bagging 572,000 chips at the end of the night. Stevens-Smith is at the top of the leader board but is followed closely by Michael Nosek (517,000), Jordan Knackstedt (480,500), Fred Li (388,00), and Chad Gravenor (375,500).
The Salute To Warriors event attracted some of the best players in the world to its field, and some notables returning for Day 2 include, Ben Yu (370,500), Mike Sexton (300,000), and Aaron Johnson (137,500).
With some of the games top names entered into the field, not all of them were able to make it to Day 2 and those include bracelet winners, David Williams, Chris Ferguson, Benjamin Moon, Brett Apter, and Erik Cajelais.
All of the remaining 287 players will return for Day 2 action Wednesday, July 3rd, 2019. Day 2 will start at 12 p.m. local time with action picking up on level 16, where blinds will be 2,500/5,000 with a 5,000 big blind ante. Play is scheduled to play down to the final six players, with blind levels lasting 40-minutes. Players will receive a 15-minute break after every 3 levels with a 60-minute dinner break after the 9th level of the day.
It won't take long for Day 2 players to reach the money, so make sure to come back and tune in, as PokerNews live reporting team will be on hand throughout the day bringing you all of the updates of this historical event.
flop was no help for Cajelais. 
and Cajelais needed to pair his ace or king on the river to stay alive. 
and Li eliminated Cajelais from the tournament.
rainbow flop was a great flop from him with no diamond on the board.
and Sexton just needed to dodge an ace. 
and he eliminated his opponent.
and Yu eliminated his opponent from the tournament.
