This year's edition of the $365 Bar Poker Open Championship Invitational saw a total of 472 players come out to play the first flight here today. This set our current prizepool at $141,600 so far, and seemingly on its way to land just around $400,000 as the likely endpoint. From that starting field, only 54 made their way into the money with an even smaller number of 24, still eligible for the $100,000 first-place prize.

Leading the way is Frank "Domino" Muser who bagged up 1,485,000. Muser raked in most of his chips when he eliminated Tom Heinlein in a massive pot, propelling him into the chip lead and he held it for the rest of the tournament. Nathaniel McNamara bagged just behind him with 1,380,000 after being all-in on the bubble against Joshua Mordenti (60,000). He had run into Mordenti's aces, only to be saved by making a wheel on the river to score a massive double into the top two chip stacks. Both of them will be looking for their first BPO title.

Day 1a1 Top Ten Chip Counts

Two former BPO main event champions made their way to the end of the day as Rafael Jimenez (350,000) and Ian Auvil (300,000) look to carve their names deeper into BPO history with a second title. Auvil won the BPO world championship last November while Jimenez took down this very event in 2019, each player taking home $50,000 for their efforts.

Fortune did not smile on all today. Last year's runner up Ryan Surdi made the money, but found himself just short of collecting a bag at the end of the day. He will be able to join the other players in their quest to play tomorrow and find a bag then.

The 24 players finished with 7:25 left in Level 19, with blinds at 10,000/25,000 and a 25,000 big blind ante. Players who did not bag in this flight will have one more opportunity tomorrow to find a path to Day 2. Those who wish to bag again can do so as their smaller stack will be cashed out for $1,500.

Stay tuned to PokerNews for all updates on the Bar Poker Open.