That's the end of Day 1a, and the ~97 players who survived have been granted an early night.
Casey Cavanaugh did the best work in that session, riding a late surge to a chip-leading count of 196,700. He's joined at the top by Shaun McBride and Mark Kroon as members of the Century Club, and you can see their chip counts in the post below.
Other notables who will have the night off include Garry Gates, Alex Masek, Jeff Banghart, Allen Kessler, and Amanda Musumeci.
The group of players who were eliminated will have another chance at this Main Event at 7:00pm. We'd love to tell you more about Day 1a, but that's less than 10 minutes away.
Ryan Enriquezzo won the WSOPC Main Event in Atlantic City last month, and we just found him involved in an all-in pot. He got his last 13,325 into the middle with his flipping for double or nothing against an opponent's .
The board came , and Enriquezzo has doubled back above starting stack here in the eleventh hour.
We missed the hand but not the outcome. Casey Cavanaugh has drastically changed his tournament in the last 20 minutes. After winning the big pot we wrote about below, Cavanaugh knocked out two players in one hand.
His stack has grown to around 170,000 - but even he isn't sure about that.
"Hey, you want to interview the tournament chip leader?" Mark Kroon asked as soon as we got within four tables of him.
Kroon was dragging a monster pot as we made our way over. As he was talking with his table, he gave us the little bit of info we were craving. "I mean, I had a straight draw to catch, a flush draw to catch... and a plane to catch if I missed."
He apparently did not miss, and he'll have about 120,000 chips after he stacks up. That's almost good enough for the chip lead, but not quite.
We won't tell you about the bad beat that Garry Gates just put on an opponent to double. All right, maybe just a little of it. Gates got himself pot-committed with pocket sevens on a flop, and his opponent put him in a bad spot with a third ten in his hand. Gates managed to find runner-runner hearts to come from behind and double, though, and he's chipped up a bit more since then to find himself sitting pretty with close to 65,000 now.
We were aware of a big pot brewing on one of the center tables, but we didn't make it to the action until the river card was already out. The board showed , and Casey Cavanaugh was leading the betting. He put out 20,000 into a pot of about 35,000, and his opponent spent some time in the tank before shoving. Cavanaugh called all in for about 46,000 total, and his opponent announced, "Quads."
"Quads," Cavanaugh asked, frightened as he tabled his . His opponent did not have quads. The appeared in front of his stack, and Cavanaugh's full house was the better one.
That's the biggest pot we've seen so far, and it vaults Cavanaugh all the way up into the chip lead with about 130,000 chips now.
![[user196975]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
flipping for double or nothing against an opponent's 
.
, and Enriquezzo has doubled back above starting stack here in the eleventh hour.
flop, and his opponent put him in a bad spot with a third ten in his hand. Gates managed to find runner-runner hearts to come from behind and double, though, and he's chipped up a bit more since then to find himself sitting pretty with close to 65,000 now.
, and Casey Cavanaugh was leading the betting. He put out 20,000 into a pot of about 35,000, and his opponent spent some time in the tank before shoving. Cavanaugh called all in for about 46,000 total, and his opponent announced, "Quads."
appeared in front of his stack, and Cavanaugh's full house was the better one.