Vedes Leads WPT Jacksonville

168 players remain at the end of the first day of play at the 2011 World Poker Tour Jacksonville Main Event. After two separate starting days on Friday and Saturday, a little over half of the original field of 393 was eliminated, leaving former WPT winner Tommy Vedes in the chip lead heading into Day 2.

Vedes will head into the merged field on the second day of play with 209,200 chips, making him the only player in the tournament to cross the 200,000 chip mark. Second place belongs to Matthew Jarvis, who bagged 190,300.

As with many WPT events this season, the Jacksonville event – which takes place at the Poker Room at Orange Park Kennel Club – features a reduced buy-in of $3,500. In addition, the tournament was organized as a re-entry event, meaning players that busted on Day 1a had the opportunity to come back on Saturday to try their luck for a second time.

The tournament prize pool totaled nearly $1.3 million, with $325,928 being awarded to first place. In all, 40 players will make the money, with all winners receiving a minimum of $7,510.

Several other notables also dotted the leaderboard heading into Day 2 of play. Shaun Deeb sat in 4^th place with a very healthy stack of 174,900. David Pham also performed well on his opening day, putting together a stack of 165,600 chips, which was good for 6^th position. Other notables with healthy stacks included John Racener, Nick Schulman, Dwyte Pilgrim, and Jeff Forrest.

Of course, many top players won’t be making the trip to the second day of place, including Jason Mercier, Will Failla and Andy Frankenberger.

Day 2 of the tournament takes place on Sunday. The tournament is scheduled to conclude on Tuesday.