Cartwright Amasses Overall Chip Lead on Day 1b of the bestbet Jacksonville Spring Series $2,500 Main Event
Day 1b of the 2021 bestbet Jacksonville Spring Series $2,500 Main Event drew 258 entries to bring the two-day tournament total up to 401 with 36 players adding their names to the list of 18 players that advanced from Day 1a. At the end of the day, however, Kyle Cartwright stole the show finishing play with 490,000.
Cartwright's ascent came after the dinner break when he busted a player with pocket tens to ace-five suited to bring his stack above six figures and he never looked back from there. An hour later, he had doubled that figure only to double it again after another hour had passed. By the time chips went into bags, he was just shy of half a million, plenty to give him the overall chip lead going into Sunday's Day 2.
Johnny Landreth also experienced a late-night surge to finish the day with 410,000 with Anthony Askey, Brian Arbaugh, and Stephen Strout also having strong evenings to round out the top five. Le Tieu was just behind the trio, finishing the day with 298,000. Others to advance included Warren Teal (275,000), Zach Gruneberg (254,000), Hal Rotholz (244,000), David and Gloria Jackson (140,000 and 182,000, respectively), and Wayne Harmon (120,000).
A total of 54 players will be returning just three spots away from the money come Sunday's Day 2 at noon. Players such as Aaron Thivyanathan (74,000), Jack Sumner (61,000), Filipp Khavin (57,000), and Ken Taffaro (41,000) will be entering the day as some of the shorter stacks in the room with the hopes of not only hanging on through the bursting of the bubble but also to make a deep run.
Meanwhile, many more among the likes of Scott Stewart, Nick Palma, Michael Wang, Hamid Izadi, and Timothy Miles will not be among those returning to play for the $180,986 set to go to Sunday night's winner.
PokerNews will be back at it to take you all the way to the finish line tomorrow. Have a good night.
and action checked to Arbaugh, who bet 11,000 and was check-raised to 30,000 by Theodocion.
. Theodocion continued on the turn 
. Theodocion jammed for his last 52,500 and Arbaugh thought for well over a minute before finding a call.
for the missed gutshot straight draw. Arbaugh showed 
and took down the pot with his two jacks, increasing his stack to over 350,000 in the process to give him the largest stack in the room with 51 players now remaining.
face up.
onto the middle of the table for all to see. The player tapped the table twice, congratulating Harmon on a nice hand. He has since chipped up a bit more and appears to be the chip leader with around two hours of play remaining in the evening.
. David Jackson had checked his big blind and action was back on him. He called.
and Jackson checked again. Sikes bet 5,300 and Jackson check-raised to 14,300. Sikes found a call and the river came 
. Jackson shoved for 22,000 more and Sikes called.
and Sikes threw his hand down onto the felt in a frustrated manner. The dealer immediately reached across to scoop up the no-good hand and send it into the muck before making the pot right to ship Jackson's way.
and Sumner checked. Palma made a continuation-bet of 2,500 and received a call from the player on his left. Sumner folded, taking action heads up to the turn 
and Palma checked to his opponent. The player bet 3,000, which Palma called.
and Palma checked again. His opponent put in another 5,000 and Palma check-jammed on him for around 20,000 more effective. His opponent called.
but Ha was the one to improve on the river, finishing the hand with a full house to earn the pot and knockout.
and another 5,000 on 
after the big blind check-raised Turvin and called off his remaining chips when Turvin three-bet jammed.
