The fourth and final starting flight in the $200 No-Limit Hold'em $50,000 Guaranteed Event #1 at the 2015 Seneca Fall Poker Classic drew a healthy 169 entries and re-entries to the the Niagara Falls Poker Room today.
What that means is a total of 599 entries over four starting flights created a guarantee-smashing $96,738 prizepool that will pay 54 spots with $22,447 set aside for the winner.
After 14 levels of play in this flight, 31 more players survived and they will join the 59 through from the first three flights in returning to play to a winner Sunday.
Todd Saffron ran hot and grabbed the chip lead heading into the late levels. In the end he fizzled a little, doubling up a number of short stacks and missing out on bagging this flight's lead.
That spot belongs to Kevin Reyes, who held with a set of kings against a nut-flush draw to build a stack and cruised to a stack of 223,000 over the last level of the night.
Other big stacks heading into Day 2 from this group included Nick Walker, Deitrich Kuhlmann, Casey Smith.
Day 2 will kick off at 11 a.m. local time Sunday with a total of 90 players, the 54-player money bubble within sight and Day 1a chip leader Michael Davis and his massive 342,000-chip stack still on top.
Hit us up then for continued coverage of the 2015 Seneca Fall Poker Classic Event #1 right here on PokerNews.
Toronto, Canada's Casey Smith raised it up and there was a three-bet right behind him. A third player cold four-bet all in and after Casey called his almost 60,000-chip stack off, the player on his left did as well.
Smith had the and was in the enviable position of both his shorter stacked opponents holding the and respectively.
The board ran out bringing little in the way of surprises and as his opponents hit the rail, Smith vaulted up to a spot among the late leaders.
Todd Saffron just got it in against a short stack with threes against .
A nine flopped to put him behind, but Saffron busty the shorty thanks to a three on the river and now has the overall chip lead on 175,000 heading into the break with two levels left to play on the day.
Top local rounder Todd Saffron has pushed into the chip lead as the evening flight wears on.
He's the first player past the 100,000-chip mark here and in the driver's seat thanks to a couple of key pots, including making the nut straight over another straight, and a lot of small ones.
"I'm just winning a lot of small pots, catching a few bluffs and really just taking my share," he said with a smile.
The fourth and final starting flight in the $200 No-Limit Hold'em $50,000 Guaranteed Event #1 at the 2015 Seneca Fall Poker Classic continues inside the Niagara Falls Poker room this evening.
So far the event has seen 430 entries and re-entries, absolutely crushing the guarantee with this flight still to play out.
Some 59 players are already through to Sunday's second and final day and anyone jumping in tonight will be looking to join them.
Play began at 6 p.m. local time with a host of the area's top rounders and colorful regulars already in the mix. To make Day 2, they will need to navigate through 14 full 30-minute levels or down to 12 per cent of the starting field, whichever comes first.
Players started out with 15,000 in chips and registration and unlimited re-entry remains available through the first eight levels. This will be the last chance to get a piece of the ever-growing guarantee-smashing prize pool.
PokerNews will be on hand throughout bringing you live updates of all the action beginning with the start of this fourth flight's fourth level, just minutes from now.