Dustin Holladay Leads Day 1a of 2020 bestbet Jacksonville Winter Open $2,000 Main Event; Stewart, Zaki, Ezaguirre Also Bag Big
Day 1a of the 2020 bestbet Jacksonville Winter Open $2,000 Main Event played through its scheduled 14 levels to completion Friday night, drawing 195 entries and ending with 27 players making it through the day. Of those 27, Dustin Holladay was the one to find himself on top of the leader board with a stack of 365,000.
Holladay was one of the 81 players in their seats from the get-go, and he took advantage of a full day at the felt. He chipped up early thereafter and was the first player in the field to reach the 100,000-mark on the day, doing so in Level 6 before the afternoon's second break. He maintained that stack through the next several hours before chipping up to 200,000 and proceeded to put an exclamation mark on the day with a late-night surge to his final total for the night.
Ken Stacy follows in the counts with 361,000, just a hair behind Holladay. Stacy also found a late-night heater that was fueled by a string of knockouts including the likes of Dapo Ajayi and Event #1 winner Huilin Chen. Four more players bagged north of a quarter-million: Scott Stewart (339,000), Christopher Laieta (336,000), Justin Zaki (326,000) and Ricardo Eyzaguirre (281,000).
Others to advance were Pete Theodocion (228,000), Brian Arbaugh (194,000), Taylor Howard (141,000), and David Jackson (125,000). Plenty more players of note were seen throughout the day that did not advance, including Darren Elias, Nick Pupillo, Timothy Miles, Mark Hodge, and Howard Hankin.
All who have did not make it through Day 1a will have another chance to advance on Saturday's Day 1b, the second and final of two starting flights for the Main Event. Just like the first edition, Day 1b will begin at noon and play 14 levels of 40 minutes apiece.
Also just like Day 1a, PokerNews will be on the floor from start to finish bringing you all of the action as it unfolds. See you then!
certainly gave him a shot, one that would become even more real on the turn 
after he picked up two pair. Chen was unable to find an ace or counterfeit paired board to reimprove on the river 
and was eliminated from the tournament, standing up and making his way from the tournament area as the pot was shipped to Stacy. 
.
. Zaki tabled [jts] and was already well ahead.
. Ajayi checked over to Stewart, who continuation-bet 4,000 and saw Howard make it 12,000 to go.
and chiding the two to at least let him get the impression they were thinking about their decisions.
left him in even worse shape due to Theodocion also flopping a set. The one outer was not in store this time as the turn 
and river 
and Zaki bet 6,000. Sumner raised to 16,000 and Stewart check-three-bet jammed over the top, covering both remaining players. Zaki immediately pushed his remaining chips forward to call all in, sending action back to Sumner who thought for close to a minute before folding for his remaining chips.
opened both ends of Stewart's straight draw, giving him three more outs, but the river 
was clean to give Zaki a full house and score him the double and then some. 
all but sealed the deal for McNulty to scoop, needing to only fade running hearts to do so. The turn 
made it certain, and the river 
