Lee Davy brings you an update from the first day of the World Series of Poker National Championships at Harrah’s Cherokee in North Carolina.

The fifth iteration of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) National Championships has kicked of at Harrah’s Cherokee in North Carolina, and Foxwoods Casino Champion Brad St. Vincent leads the final 48 players with 178,800 chips.

This is the first time this event has been held in North Carolina. The rules were pretty simple. 100 players qualified for the event due to their performances in the 2014-2015 WSOP Circuit (WSOPC) season. That included WSOPC Main Event champions, casino champions and a sprinkling from the WSOPC leaderboard. In addition, members of the WSOP World Ranking Top 100 were allowed to pay $10,000 to enter the event.

The event eventually attracted 122 players. Amongst them were WSOP legend Phil Hellmuth, PokerStars Team Pro Daniel Negreanu, former WSOP Main Event winner Ryan Riess and the defending champion Dominik Nitsche.