Miller Bags the Overall Lead After Day 1b in the $1,700 Main Event
It was another busy day inside the Horseshoe Tunica Hotel and Casino for Day 1b of the World Series of Poker Circuit $1,700 Main Event. More than double the entries were recorded from the first starting flight with 341 showing up today. There was no shortage of action at any point and Christopher Miller was the biggest beneficiary on the day.
Miller bagged up a whopping 514,000 chips, good enough for the overall chip lead heading into Day 2. Miller's day got off to a good start when his flopped straight got paid off by two pair. After the dinner break, Miller caught fire with big hand after big hand, including a monster pot with ace-king against his opponent's ace-queen. Miller flopped a pair of kings and when his opponent shoved into him on the turn, it was an easy call for the Alabama native.
Scott Stewart, former WSOP Main Event final tablist, returned for Day 1b after a disappointing finish on Day 1a that saw his above-average stack dissipate in the final level. Stewart took advantage of the long late registration period but wasted no time putting his chips to work.
A couple of early pots saw Stewart more than double his starting stack and he employed a lot of aggression to build his stack throughout the second half of the day. As the night was winding down again, the thought of losing his stack must have crossed his mind after dipping below 100,000 chips. However, Stewart kicked into high gear including a big four-bet against Brian Green to bag up a healthy 305,000 chips.
Some other big stacks moving on to Day 2 include Stephan Nussrallah (387,000), Chad Smith (376,000), Kelvin Douglas (368,000), Johnny Landreth (352,000), Bryant Kelley (347,000), and Adam Todd (331,000). Todd made his way into the chip lead with nearly 400,000 chips just after the dinner break when he coolered everyone's favorite player Chris Moneymaker. Both players made a set but Todd's was the better of the two, scoring a huge double up.
Unfortunately for Moneymaker, he was on the wrong end of another cooler in the last moments of the day when he flopped two pair against a set of eights. Moneymaker was left with just three big blinds after the hand and could not survive to make it through to Day 3. Other notables joining him on the sideline include Vincent Moscati, Brett Apter, Heather Alcorn, Irene Carey, Adam Lamphere, Denise Pratt, and Aaron Gamino.
The action will resume at 12 p.m. local time tomorrow for Day 2 with 79 players returning to their seats. They will be just five eliminations away from cracking the money and locking up at least $2,777 for a min-cash. The current schedule for Day 2 is to play ten 60-minute levels or until the final table is reached.
The PokerNews team will be back to bring you all of the live updates from the money bubble until a champion is crowned on Day 3.