$1,450 Main Event
Day 1b Completed
2021 Colorado Poker Championship
$1,450 Main Event
Day: 1b
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
Players Info - Day 1b
2021 Colorado Poker Championship
Buy-in
$1,450
Prize Pool
$389,276
Entries
307
Level
27
Blinds
40,000 / 80,000
Ante
10,000
Entries
121
Players Left
18
Kenny Leads Day 1b of the 2021 Colorado Poker Championship $1,450 Main Event
Level 14
: 2,000/4,000, 4,000 ante
Day 1b of the Bally's Black Hawk 2021 Colorado Poker Championship (CPC) $1,450 Main Event drew 121 entries, bringing the two-day total up to 191 with one flight remaining. After a full day of play, Mike Kenny (546,000) finished the day atop the leader board with 18 players advancing in total.
Kenny, a native of Virginia Beach, VA has spent the last week in Colorado visiting a friend in Pueblo, a city two hours south of Black Hawk. Stating the reason for his vacation was that he needed to get away, Kenny came up to Black Hawk earlier in the CPC to play some poker, only to find out there was a full tournament series occurring.
As for his run today, Kenny eclipsed 100,000 shortly before the dinner break after scoring a knockout with pocket aces. By the last level of the night, he had more than doubled that amount before flopping a set of tens and taking a stack of more than 200,000 from Svetlana Martie, who had flopped a set of fours. The boost put him on top of the counts, where he finished just shy of Day 1a chip leader Rocco Palumbo's 554,500.
Edwin Parker (473,500) finished second on the day, amassing a stack early in the afternoon and never really slowing down as play progressed through the evening. Eric Smidinger (456,000) also bagged a sizeable stack, well clear of the only two other players to finish the day above 200,000 in Jorden Helstern (265,500) and Jason Johnson (217,000).
Other notables to advance included Aaron Frei (193,500), Rich Dixon (186,000), Al Hart (152,500), Justin Liberto (134,500), and Ian Pelz (72,500). Plenty more failed to advance, including Dapo Ajayi, Ben Keeline, Aaron Thomas, Greg Collins, and current CPC points leader Bobby Sanoubane.
One flight remains for all who have yet to make it through to Sunday's Day 2, with play resuming Saturday for Day 1c at noon local time. PokerNews will be on the floor once more bringing you concluding coverage of Day 1 action. See you then.
End of Day 1b Chip Counts (full)
Level 14
: 2,000/4,000, 4,000 ante
Mike Kenny has bagged the chip lead on Day 1b with a total of 546,000, the only player to finish the day above 500K. Final chip counts have been posted below for all 18 players who advanced, and an end-of-day recap will be posted in the near future.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
546,000 | -4,000 |
|
473,500 | -46,500 |
|
456,000 | 21,000 |
|
265,500 | 3,500 |
|
217,000 | 58,000 |
|
193,500 | 86,500 |
|
186,000 | 2,000 |
|
173,000 | -27,000 |
|
172,000 | 26,000 |
|
152,500 | -58,500 |
|
135,000 | -40,000 |
|
134,500 | -500 |
|
128,000 | -74,000 |
|
115,000 | -9,000 |
|
95,500 | 22,000 |
|
88,000 | |
|
72,500 | -33,500 |
|
60,000 | 4,000 |
Play Ends
Level 14
: 2,000/4,000, 4,000 ante
Play has finished for the night with 18 players advancing to Day 2, bringing the two-day total up to 26. Stay tuned for end-of-day chip counts and a recap of the day's action.
Smidinger Wins One Before Bagging
Level 14
: 2,000/4,000, 4,000 ante
Jorden Helstern opened the action with a raise to 9,000 under the gun and received a call from Eric Smidinger on the button. Action went heads up to a flop of 
and Helstern continuation-bet 11,000. Smidinger called.
Helstern continued for another 21,000 on the turn 
and Smidinger called, bringing the river 
where action checked through to showdown.
Helstern balked once Smidinger checked behind, causing Smidinger to table 
. Helstern then lifted his cards up from the nine-seat and set them to his left for the dealer to scoop up before shipping Smidinger the pot.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
435,000 | 62,000 |
|
|
262,000 | -90,000 |
Two More Hands
Level 14
: 2,000/4,000, 4,000 ante
The tournament clock has been stopped with 17:35 remaining in Level 14, exactly 10 minutes prior to last night's hard stop time. Two more hands will be played on each of the remaining tables before all players left in contention get to take part in the celebratory bag-n-tag.
Late Night Photos from Day 1b of the 2021 Colorado Poker Championship $1,450 Main Event
Two Players Reach Half a Million
Level 14
: 2,000/4,000, 4,000 ante
Al Hart raised to 8,000 in the cutoff and received a call from Edwin Parker in the small blind. Jason Remshardt then squeezed in the big blind, three-betting to 30,000 and receiving calls from both Hart and Parker.
The flop dropped 
and all three players checked, bringing the turn 
. Parker overbet-jammed with a covering stack, sending Remshardt deep into the tank. He eventually found a fold and Hart quickly folded behind, earning Parker the pot and making him the first player in the field to reach 500,000.
Moments later, Svetlana Martie was seen making her way from the tournament area. Martie had chipped up to 230,000 only to run a set of fours into a set of tens held by Mike Kenny, which vaulted his stack to 550,000 just moments after Parker reached the 500K mark.
Bobby Garcia was also eliminated from Martie's table, with the pair of bust-outs bringing the field down to 18 across two full tables.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
550,000 | 367,000 |
|
|
520,000 | 50,000 |
|
|
146,000 | -24,000 |
|
|
124,000 | 74,000 |
|
Busted | |
|
Busted |
Level: 14
Blinds: 2,000/4,000
Ante: 4,000
Frei Gets a Dub
Level 13
: 2,000/3,000, 3,000 ante
Action folded around to Justin Liberto in the small blind and he completed. Aaron Frei jammed for 52,000 and Liberto called.
Aaron Frei: 
Justin Liberto: 
Frei had Liberto dominated until the flop 
added nine outs to the latter's total. However, no further drama came as the turn 
and river 
completed the runout, leaving Frei's eight kicker best to score him the dub.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
135,000 | -15,000 |
|
|
107,000 | 25,500 |