Thomas Johnson Bags Chip Lead on Day 1b of Choctaw Casino Resort $1,700 Main Event
After 12 plus hours of play,16 levels are complete and all chips have been bagged for Day 1b of Choctaw Casino Resorts $1,700 Main Event. After Day 1a drew 354 entries, today’s flight saw an additional 622 join the fun with 108 players remaining when play concluded.
Thomas Johnson ended the day with a whopping 543,000 to finish as the clear chip leader after continually stacking chips throughout the day.
Second in chips is Billy Bailey, who also led a charge at the end of the evening, building his stack from around 200,000 to its finishing point in the last two levels of the evening. Bailey bagged a stack of 516,000 which is above Day 1a chip leader Russ Floyd’s 481,000. Another player to end the night with a bigger stack than Day 1a's chip leader was Rodolfo Marez who bagged 496,500. Other players to finish in the top include Trung Tran (468,000), Daniel Lowery (460,000), and Lee Abramson (430,000).
Saturday’s Day 1b flight saw a ton of recognizable faces make it up the mountain at their final shot at advancing to Day 2. Some players to advance in this flight include Aaron Massey (142,000), Jean "Prince" Gaspard (136,000), TJ Cloutier (135,500), Chris Tryba (101,000), Paul Sokoloff (70,000), and reigning champion Dave Alfa (38,500).
A few players who were not fortunate enough to advance including Bart Bogard, Lexy Gavin, Jared Jaffee, Todd Dreyer, John Richards and Gil George.
Day 2 will Sunday, July 28th, with a local start time of noon. Play will resume at the beginning of Level 17, with blinds of 2,500/5,000 and a 5,000 big-blind ante. Levels will last 60- minutes throughout the day with 15-minute breaks coming after every two levels.
There will be 167 players returning for Day 2 action and 147 of the making it into the money. Those who earn the first-level payout will receive $2,547 and payouts will climb from there to the eventual first-place prize of $255,535.
Stay tuned here as the PokerNews live reporting team will be here to bring you all of the action as the day unfolds.