Welcome To Day 1a of the 2021 Colorado Poker Championship $1,450 Main Event
After 20 prelims have played to their completion over two weeks' time, Bally's Black Hawk's flagship poker series, the Colorado Poker Championship (CPC) has reached the $1,450 Main Event.
Play will kick off on Thursday at noon with Day 1a, the first of three starting flights that will run through Saturday. The event is set to run over three days, with the field combining on Sunday for Day 2 to play down to the final table, which will take place Monday and declare this year's only CPC Main Event champion. The eventual winner will also be the first to claim a CPC title in over two years, with Steve Wilkie and Nate Zoller chopping the most recent August 2019 version for $60,114 apiece.
Cards will fly at noon local time with players receiving starting stacks of 30,000. Blinds begin at 100/100 with a big-blind ante in place from the start and 40-minute levels on Day 1. There will be 10-minute breaks at the completion of every three levels, or two hours of play, with a 40-minute dinner break at the conclusion of Level 9 (600/1,200/1,200) at approximately 6:20 p.m.
Unlimited re-entries are available through the dinner break, closing at the beginning of Level 10 (1,000/1,500/1,500) at approximately 7 p.m. local time. Play will conclude at the end of Level 14 (2,000/4,000/4,000) unless 12% of the field remains prior to that time. The tournament is also not a best-stack-forward event, meaning all players who find a bag at the end of the night must take that stack into Day 2 unless they wish to forfeit their chips and try again in a subsequent flight.
WSOP Main Event Seat Up for Grabs
Another highlight to the CPC is its series-long points race, which is set to award five seats to the $3,000 CPC High Roller on Wednesday, September 29 (also covered by PokerNews) to the top points finishers. Additionally, the winner of the points leader board will also earn themselves $10,000 for a World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event entry.
As of September 21, Jason Welch leads the way with a total of 350 points, with Bobby Sanoubane, Sammy Aweida, Aaron Frei, and Salim Wahdan also in prime position for High Roller seats. However, plenty of familiar faces can be found lurking in the shadows, such as Josh Saltz, Ross Lantzy, and Al Hart, and nobody's spot is truly safe as a big Main Event turnout could shake up the landscape entirely.
A look at the leader board entering Day 1a is as follows:
| Place | Player | Total Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jason Welch | 350 |
| 2 | Bobby Sanoubane | 328 |
| 3 | Sammy Aweida | 273 |
| 4 | Aaron Frei | 168 |
| 5 | Salim Wahdan | 168 |
| 6 | Dwane Collard | 160 |
| 7 | Mansour Alipourfard | 150 |
| 8 | Andrew Stevens | 148 |
| 9 | Christopher Brand | 140 |
| 10 | Josh Saltz | 138 |
| 11 | Dimitriose Andrianakos | 135 |
| 12 | Ross Lantzy | 125 |
| 13 | Al Hart | 123 |
| 14 | Andrew Miller | 123 |
| 15 | Jonathan McCray | 123 |
| 16 | Francesco Campanile | 120 |
| 17 | Michael Fallis | 113 |
PokerNews will be providing bookend coverage of the CPC Main Event, so be sure to follow along and stay up to date on the action.
. The first five players checked, putting action onto the player on the button. He bet 800 and saw action quickly fold back to Wilkie, who was the last line of defense. Wilkie called.
and Wilkie put out a bet of 1,000. His opponent folded and he took down the pot, teasing 
as the chips were shipped his way.
. Thomas Fuller checked in the big blind and Andrew Miller followed suit under the gun, putting action onto Mike Wheeler in the cutoff, who fired out a bet.
. Fuller mucked.
and action was heads up between Greg Geller in middle position and Zach Gutierrez, who was in the cutoff. Geller check-called a bet of 3,500 from Gutierrez and the river 
completed the board.
for top set and it proved to be good for the pot as Geller quickly pushed his cards forward from the one-seat to muck them.
left Faecher out in front but he picked up three more outs to sweat after the turn 
hit the board. The board did wind up double pairing on the river 
and the turn 
. Keeline reached for a stack of chips and set it onto the felt, prompting Wu to ask for a count that was totaled to 36,000. Wu folded.
.
and Palumbo took the initiative, firing a bet that only the player on the button called.
