Players continue to file in to the tournament hall in the early going of Day 1C, pushing the number of entries past 230 with roughly 20 minutes left to play in level 1.
The players have come out firing this afternoon, with three-bets and four-bets setting the early tone. We even saw a pre-flop all in less than ten minutes after the start of play:
Here’s a look at some of the players in the field so far:
The Main Event of the WSOP-C Playground is in full swing, and the stage is set for another big starting flight on Day 1C. With two live starting flights already in the books, Day 1C is shaping up to be the busiest yet.
The format has quickly become familiar to those in attendance; a starting stack of 50,000 in chips, and ten 60-minute levels to play before bagging for Day 2. Players will be able to enter or re-enter at any point during this flight, as well as during the first two levels of play on Saturday’s Day 2.
As the opportunities to enter and re-enter the Main Event dwindle, we are likely to see more re-entries today than in previous flights. The players will be looking to bag as many chips as possible for Day 2, a dynamic that will lead to a “boom or bust” approach for many in the field.
For anyone still looking to play their way in to the Main Event, there will be a Main Event Mega Satellite this afternoon at 2pm. With a buy-in of only $110, today’s Mega Satellite guarantees 30 Main Events seats, providing great value for all those in attendance.
Day 1C kicks off in less than 20 minutes. There are already over 110 players registered, and that number is ticking up by the minute. This is one you don’t want to miss!
Good luck to all!
After 10 levels of play, the last cards were dealt, the last chips were pushed, and the remaining players are exiting the Tournament Hall.
Players started with 50,000 in chips and played through ten 60-minute levels. The tournament logged 316 total entries (including 63 re-entries), and at the end of the day, 114 players bagged chips to carry on to Day 2. The chip leader for Day 1B is also the overall chip leader in the tournament so far: Danny Freitas. He managed to accumulate just over 650K in chips today – an impressive figure for a player that is already coming off a deep run in the Colossus.
The Main Event allows for a single re-entry per flight, as well as direct buy-ins during the first two levels of Day 2, providing everyone plenty of opportunities to get their share of the $2,000,000 guaranteed prize pool.
Today was the 2nd of 4 Live starting flights in the tournament. Yesterday’s Day 1A received 260 entries and 89 players were left standing. To those 89 qualified players for Day 2, we can now add today’s 114 players. Day 1C gets underway Thursday, August 30th at 12:00pm.
Full results from today’s Day 1B have been added to the Combined Day 1 results page.
Here are some final photos of Day 1B:
We came up to a table where Trevor Delaney had an approximately 30,000 bet in front of him. He was up against two ladies who had both gone all-in. Regina Auletta was all-in for 75,800, and Kathy Sawers had all of her 32,700 chips in front of her.
It took quite a while for Trevor to make up his mind. After a few furtive glances to the side-by-side women, he gave a huge sigh and folded his hand. This fold seemed to surprise the other players considerably, after all he did have almost half of the required chips already committed to the pot.
With Delaney out, both ladies tabled their hands.
Regina: 
Kathy: 
As the dealer took out the flop, Kathy liked but definitely didn’t love what she saw: 
Now, on top of all the jacks, Kathy had to dodge any club and every queen.
The turn 
was a brick.
But in the end the river 
gave Regina the win with a somewhat simple solution: top pair.
So Kathy Sawers was sent to the rail and Regina doubled-her stack to a more comfortable number. Now with more than the average, and only 40 minutes left to play, it gave her some much-needed breathing room.
Poker players know it, Kenny Rogers said it… You’ve got to know when to fold ’em.
We came up on table 35, where early tournament chip leader Steven Martin was involved in a key hand. Although Steven did not have quite as many chips as when we last visited him, he still had a very decent stack in front of him.
The flop was out: 
.
Jean-Francois Alexandre and Alemu Makonen were already all-in, and Steven was pondering his decision. Alexandre had pushed all-in with 73,300 chips, and Makonen was all-in for 56,300. There was an additional 22,000 in the pot, and we could see Steven mentally struggling with his decision.
“I’m folding a monster here guys.” he exclaimed and showed: 
. Pretty much every player at the table agreed with his statement. Both all-in players tabled their hands:
Alemu Makonen: 
Jean-Francois Alexandre: 
So up against bottom set and top-top it seemed once again that Steven had done a great fold.
Then the turn came: . All eyes turned to Steven Martin, and we didn’t need a crystal ball to know what they were thinking… bad fold?. Steven stayed ramrod straight, not showing any emotion whatsoever.
Then the river changed everything: 
Jean-Francois took in the 150,000 + pot, with his full house threes over sevens, and Alemu Makonen was sent to the rail. Martin had made an excellent decision.
Maintaining a stack is a lot of work, as Steven Martin just proved. As the dealer moved on to the next hand Steven turned to us and said: “Darn that was a hard fold”. Quite right sir!
Going into the last stint of two levels for Day 1B, Danny Freitas has taken over the chip lead in Day 1B of the flight. Fresh off a solid final table performance in the Colossus, Danny has managed to build an impressive stack that’s just a hair below 400K – and with two more levels, he has an opportunity to grow that further.
Second in chips is local tournament player Kevin Rivest, who is up over 285K, with Srinivas Gottiparhi, Tony Stratopoulos, and Curt Kohlberg rounding out the top 5.
Play will continue until the end of level 10 at which time the remaining players will bag their chips to take to Day 2.
| First Name | Prénom | Last Name | Nom | Stack | Tapis |
|---|---|---|
| Danny | Freitas | 395,000 |
| Kevin | Rivest | 286,600 |
| Srinivas | Gottiparthi | 267,100 |
| Tony | Stratopoulos | 265,000 |
| Curt | Kohlberg | 263,500 |
| Nikolas | Psarris | 250,400 |
| Steven | Martin | 243,700 |
| Mario | Duquette | 240,000 |
| Ivan | Mamuzic | 233,300 |
| Obaidullah | Habibi | 231,000 |
| Ryan | McEathron | 223,600 |
| Homan | Mohammadi | 205,200 |
| Levon | Dedeyan | 200,200 |
