$600 Main Event
Day 2 Started
$600 Main Event
Day 2 Started
A champion will be crowned in the 2017 Seneca Niagara Summer Slam Main Event today.
After two starting flights Friday and Saturday drew a field of 414 entries, creating a guarantee-crushing $220,869 prizepool, just 88 players remain in the hunt for that title and the $51,904 first-place prize it comes with.
First comes the fight for the money, as only the top 45 finishers will get paid. Then, a battle for seats at the final table, where the top nine will guarantee themselves close to $5,000 each. After that, it's time to ladder up, with the top five looking at five-figure scores and more than just Seneca poker glory awaiting the winner.
Play will begin at 11 a.m. local time with skyrocketing blinds already at 2000/4000 with a 500 ante.
Fairport, NY’s Scott Hosbach ran hotter than the Bethlehem Steel fire at the end of the second starting flight, putting over 500,000 in the bag once the smoke plume cleared. He'll take a massive lead into play today with no one even within 100,000.
However, there is a group of former Seneca champs and local standouts sitting over 200,000, and within one double of contention, including no less than Chris Meyers, William Liang, Hayden Glassman, Vince Palma, Jason Clark, Bruce Pace, Adam Foster, James DiPasquale, and, of course, Blake Napierala.
Plus, the list of names in the remaining 88 looks like local who's who with several Seneca winners and local legends among them.
No matter how big it gets, no chip lead is ever safe, or anything but a massive prizepool guaranteed inside the Niagara Falls Poker Room, and so the 2017 Seneca Niagara Summer Slam Main Event is up for grabs on this sunny summer Sunday, just blocks from the eighth wonder of the world.
Stay tuned to PokerNews to find out who will claim this crown.
Level: 16
Blinds: 2,000/4,000
Ante: 500
Dennis Durante just doubled through Jon Giordano after an internet poker runout took them on a wild ride.
Durante raised it up under the gun and Giordano three-bet. Durante made the call and shoved the flop for around 100,000.
Giordano called with the flush draw and Durante was ahead with the . The turn made Giordano the better pair, but Durante's tournament life was miraculously saved by the set-making river.
Giordano had dust left, but that's since been vacuumed up with Durante joining the group over 200,000 at the top of the counts.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Dennis Durante |
220,000
109,500
|
109,500 |
Jon Giordano
|
Busted |
James DiPasquale just went from hero to zero in the matter of two hands with the legendary Bruce Pace.
Pace got it in for almost 140,000 with queens against DiPasquale's kings. A queen on the board gave Pace the two-outer set, it held, and he got the rest of a still reeling DiPasquale's chips when DiPasquale shoved the into his kings and missed.
DiPasquale hit a high water mark of just under 400,000 chips heading into the late levels Saturday. Then he got moved to chip leader Scott Hosbach's table and started a slide that would see him bag just a little over 200,000.
Now, in just the first few hands of the day, that slide is complete. He's out with Pace creeping up on Hosbach's lead.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Bruce Pace |
350,000
130,500
|
130,500 |
James DiPasquale | Busted |
Level: 17
Blinds: 2,500/5,000
Ante: 500
Chip Leader Scott Hosbach hasn't busted anyone out yet.
However, he will enter Level 17 with an additional 100,000 chips in his stack after pushing his table around a little.
They are now down to 78 and moving quickly towards the money bubble.
It's back to the pool for DJ Mackinnon, who ran into William Liang's .
In the meantime, Jason Clark is climbing up the counts after picking up jacks and picking off one shorty.
He also played bluffcatcher with a turned pair of aces and is rapidly approaching the 400,000 mark with 70 players remaining.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
William Liang |
200,000
-62,000
|
-62,000 |
DJ Mackinnon | Busted |
Jeffrey Hobrecker made 11,500 under the gun and David Olshan ripped it in behind him for 115,000.
It came to Omar El-Nasrallah in the big blind and he called. Hobrecker threw away the and it was Olshan's versus El-Nasrallah's in a classic match up with Olshan's tournament life hanging in the balance.
The board would have made Hobrecker a flush, but Olshan still busted and El-Nasrallah was pushed the pot instead.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Omar El-Nasrallah |
350,000
93,000
|
93,000 |
David Olshan | Busted |
Level: 18
Blinds: 3,000/6,000
Ante: 500