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The last of three starting flights of the $2,700 Summer Poker Open Championship attracted an additional 306 entries to bring the overall tally to 551, easily surpassing the $1,000,000 guarantee. The prize pool currently sits at $1,322,400, with registration remaining open until the start of Day 2.
After ten 60-minute levels of play today, only 98 players bagged up chips with Bin Weng sitting atop the Day 1c leaderboard with 442,500. This figure is enough for the overall chip lead, overtaking Lewis Esposito for the largest Day 2 stack. Weng is enjoying a strong series already with a final table in the $650 6-Max and another deep run in the $500 Almighty Stack as he positions himself for another big score.
Today's survivors will join the 67 to have already advanced from the first two flights for a total of 165 Day 2 bags. However, there is one double bag for Sharman Olshan, who will carry forward her 114,500 bag from today.
Sitting behind Weng is Frank Funaro (348,500), who remained toward the top of the counts the entire day. Rounding out the podium in third is Justin Liberto (314,000) as he looks forward to carrying momentum over from a successful WSOP.
End of Day 1c Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bin Weng | United States | 442,500 | 177 |
| 2 | Frank Funaro | United States | 348,500 | 139 |
| 3 | Justin Liberto | United States | 314,000 | 126 |
| 4 | Eric Yanovsky | United States | 311,500 | 125 |
| 5 | Elan Chabi | United States | 305,500 | 122 |
| 6 | Mario Damiao | United States | 296,000 | 118 |
| 7 | Srikanth Gundela | United States | 295,500 | 118 |
| 8 | TJ Laessig | United States | 266,000 | 106 |
| 9 | Carlos Chadha Villamarin | United States | 264,000 | 106 |
| 10 | Mike Dentale | United States | 248,000 | 99 |
Others to bag big stacks from today's flight include Joseph Liberta (218,500), Anthony Zinno (202,500), Ricky Landais (201,000), Michael Bohmerwald (183,000), Nick Pupillo (160,000), Daniel Lazrus (148,000), and Drew O'Connell (136,500).
Also advancing to Day 2 were Todd Lewis (124,000), Michael "Case" Mann (117,500), Vinny Pahuja (110,000), Mike Linster (95,500), Maxwell Young (81,000), Esther Taylor (75,000), Will Failla (72,500), Alex Rocha (71,500), Ricardo Eyzaguirre (71,500), Mitch Garshofsky (65,500), and Aaron Pinson (60,500).
Day 2 Action
Within the first orbit of the day, chips were flying freely as Zachery Tsachalis found a full double through Jordan Williamson when both players flopped trips, but Tsachalis had the better kicker. Unfortunately, neither player was able to advance to Day 2.
Another early cooler occurred when Ricardo Eyzaguirre flopped a set of sevens, but his opponent Lawrence Abrams turned a set of aces. Both stacks found their way into the middle, and Eyzaguirre was forced to fire a second bullet early in the day, but still finished with 71,500.
On the first hand that Benedetto Bianco and Matthew Zambanini played, they got their entire stacks in preflop with Bianco's kings against Zambanini's jacks. The kings held, but neither player was able to find any momentum throughout the day, with both firing through several bullets without finding a bag, but they retain the opportunity to enter tomorrow.
Another entertaining hand early in the day occurred when Mario Damiao flopped quad aces in a blind-on-blind battle before getting check-raised. His opponent would river a full house and pay off Damiao's all-in raise, who finished the day with 296,000.
147 players entered during the first frame of play before the second flopped quads of the day resulted in Mark Nadaban doubling his stack.
Frank Funaro and Justin Liberto began to emerge as the early chip leaders as the entry tally reached 214 by the second break of the day.
Madan Kumar nearly had a story for the ages as his stack was reduced to 300 chips, less than half a big blind at the time, before spinning his stack back to over 110,000. However, he would eventually be eliminated and fired a second bullet before night's end.
The gambling continued as players tried to build a stack for Day 2 with all ins happening all over the room, including one which saw Aaron Mermelstein have his jacks beat aces and ace-king in a massive preflop confrontation. Mermelstein finished with a bag of 121,000.
Last year's runner-up Abraham Gordon had his run cut short in the penultimate level of the night after his ace-king was unable to improve against the pocket queens of Arian Stolt. The champion from last year, Olivier Busquet, is yet to be seen this series.
The last few hours of the night was a game of musical chairs, with many players busting and re-entering as the field size ticked higher and higher. Once the dust settled, 98 players put chips in a bag as the madness concluded around 12:30 a.m.
Day 2 begins Wednesday at 12 p.m. in the Borgata Poker Room on the casino floor. The blinds will begin in Level 11 at 1,500/2,500, and registration will be closed once play begins, allowing anyone who has not found a bag already to register with 16 big blinds.
Another ten hour-long levels are on the docket for Day 2, and a live-streamed feature table will be selected at some point during the day, available to watch on the BetMGM YouTube channel.
Stay tuned right here on PokerNews to follow the live updates from the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City until a winner has been crowned.
