Day 1b Concludes; Merda Finishes On Top
Day 1b of the 2013 PPC Aruba World Championship Main Event has concluded. The field grew to 85 entries thanks to another 42 added to the mix. Plenty of players fired multiple bullets, including defending champion Joe Serock and Andy Seth. Both managed to find themselves in the event for four bullets and it looks like they will have to finish in seventh place or higher in order to come close to breaking even.
At the end of Sunday's play, it was Igor Merda who bagged up the chip lead with 195,600 in his stack. He had himself a very successful day that included busting Seth twice within a relatively short period of time. Looking up Merda's records, he has $7,582 in live tournament earnings spread across five cashes.
Other notables from Day 1b that built up nice stacks were Hayden Fortini, Steve Karp, and David Tuthill. Serock fought hard until the end of the day, but could never really gain any traction to get something going. He ended up bagging 21,400.
The 16 players remaining from Day 1b will combine with the 12 competitors that advanced to Day 2 from Day 1a and any other late registrants or reentries to begin play at 3 p.m. local time on Monday. The registration period will remain open until the start of play tomorrow, so the field could see an increase.
Be sure to stay tuned right here to PokerNews for more live coverage from Aruba. We'll see you tomorrow!