Jonathan Diolosa Bags Heaps as Another 45 Advance to Day 2
Another twelve hours and 15 levels are in the books for the second starting flight of the Big Stax XXXI 300, as 45 players advance to Sunday’s Day 2 out of a total 232 entries.
The two starting flights have combined for 481 total entries with 90 players advancings to Day 2 with Jonathan Diolosa (854,500) leading the Day 1b players.
Diolosa started to building his stack early in the day when he made a perfect read and called Svetlana [Removed:301]'s all-in bet with a bluff catcher to send him over 100,000. Diolosa continued to build chips but coasted around the 300,000 mark. It wasn't until one of the last hands of the night when he rivered a set of queens that sent him into the top spot.
Second in chips was Sridhar Natarajan who folded pocket kings in the second to last hand of the night securing his second place spot with 575,500.
The same can't be said for Aubrey Williams as she as well built up a nice stack all throughout the day but coasted in the later levels up until pivotal against Marv Siegel. The late hand saw both players river a flush but Williams held the nuts which dropped her into third in chips with 506,500.
Samuel Taylor is another player who climbed to the occasion very late and in particular, the very last hand of the night. Taylor was heads up against Michael Dalessandro on a 
board when Dalessandro jammed holding 
a Taylor snapped him off holding 
. Dalessandro was drawing dead before the dealer drooped a fourth with the 
on the turn to give Taylor the end of the night double as he ended with 405,000.
Rounding out the top stack is David Lin who was chip leader up until the last level of the night but still ended with a 392,500 bag.
Other players to advance include Joe Palma (350,500), Ryan Eriquezzo, (342,000), Daniel Sewnig (300,000), Marilyn Matthews (223,000), and Tam Nguyen (221,000).
One last starting flight remains, with Day 1d starting Saturday at 10 a.m. local time.
Come back to PokerNews for updates throughout the rest of the Big Stax XXXI 500 tournament.