Raio Leads the Field on Day 1a of the bestbet Jacksonville Spring Series $2,500 Main Event
Day 1a of the bestbet Jacksonville Spring Series $2,500 Main Event has just wrapped up with 143 entries playing their way down to the hard-stop figure of 18 players only a few seconds before stopping the clock for the final few hands of the night. When that number was reached, Nick Raio was the one atop the counts with a stack of 448,000.
Raio's stack had a nearly all-upward trajectory from the time he joined the tournament around the end of Level 5 on the day. By the second break of the day some 40 minutes later, he had more than doubled his stack. An hour later, it had doubled again and he took a stack of over 200,000 into the dinner break. His ascent only continued from there, reaching its end point in the final level of the night after eliminating Michael Wang with two pair to a combo draw.
Jermaine Gerlin, known locally as "The Lion" finished the day second in chips with 401,000, winning the bulk of his chips in a double-knockout in which he had the second-nut flush draw on the flop and got stacks in against the nut flush draw and top two pair. Drawing thin, Gerlin found running backdoor gutshot straight cards to give him what was the chip lead at the time. January's WInter Open Day 1a chip leader Dustin Holladay finished the day in third in the counts (341,000) with another strong showing that puts him in good position to improve on his 10th-place finish from a couple of months ago.
A trio of WSOP bracelet winners in James Calderaro (201,000), Byron Kaverman (110,000), and John Gorsuch (51,000) also advanced, as did Justin Zaki (116,000). Others such as Scott Stewart, "Captain" Tom Franklin, Aaron Thivyanathan, Andrew Brinkley, and Eddy Mroczkowski were less fortunate and will have another chance at Saturday's second of two starting flights.
PokerNews will be back at it come noon Saturday for Day 1b with another almost-full day on the docket. See you then.
. Gee had a shot to triple his stack of around 100,000, while Brown eyed a chance to more than double.
came to give him a king-high straight. As a result, Gerlin earned the double knockout and pot which turned out to be closer to 400,000; but nonetheless, the man known as "Lion" has overtaken the chip lead. Furthermore, the pair of eliminations has brought the field down to 24, and three tables now remain. If the field is reduced to 18 before the end of Level 14, a hard stop will come into effect and end play early for the evening.
and both players quickly checked.
and Calderaro counted out 11 1K-chips and slid them forward onto the table.
for a set of nines, prompting Wang to shake his head slightly and recognize a nice hand to Calderaro, who earned the pot to take him over 60,000.
.
left his opponent drawing dead by the turn. He now looks to have the largest stack in the room with more than a quarter-million.
and river 
and scored the pot and the knockout, bringing his stack over 130,000 along the way.
and Figueroa fired out a bet of 6,000. Brinkley quickly folded and Sikes called, bringing the river 
with 1,600 in the middle and action was heads up between the Tammer Ilcaffas in the small blind and Karl Manning, who was under the gun. Ilcaffas had led out and Manning was in the process of jamming his stack forward, totaling 19,400, which Ilcaffas called.
and river 
