Reichard Off to Strong Title Defense as 53 Advance from Day 1c of the HPT Season XV Championship Event
The final flight of the HPT Season XV $2,500 Championship Event brought 153 more entrants to the felt, bringing the total for all three flights up to 353 players. A $790,720 prize pool was built up by the field, surpassing the $700,000 guarantee, and the final 36 players will earn a piece of the pie, with the winner walking home with $181,874.
At the end of Day 1c, just 53 managed to bag up chips, with Nebraska's Mike Vanier and his 217,600 chip inching past defending champ Josh Reichard and his 215,500 chip stack. Vanier and Reichard shared a table for much of the final few levels, and both of their stacks hovered between 200,000 and 250,000 for the majority of the time. Vanier, who has over $420,000 in lifetime tournament earnings, sits well behind Day 1b chip leader Brent Barfield and his 398,300 chip stack.
Reichard will be looking to notch his third career HPT title with a win in the finale, and a win would also bring him within striking distance of the man at the top of the HPT career earnings list, Mr. HPT himself, Craig Casino. Another player looking for a title of his own is Nick Pupillo, who bagged up 94,400 chips. With only two players eligible to catch him for HPT Player of the Year, Pupillo is looking to add a second HPT title to an already impressive season on tour.
Rounding out the top five are John Michalak (195,200), Brett Reichard (179,900), and Robert Watson (153,300). Other notables include Maurice Hawkins (144,200), Stephen Song (140,700), Aaron Massey (92,400), Neil Patel (76,800), and the aforementioned Casino (69,500).
Charlie Dawson had already claimed three titles in the preliminary events leading up to this weekend's Main Event, but his quest for the biggest of all the titles of the series came up short, as he fell to Blake Whittington just an hour before the end of the night. Former HPT champs Yousef Saleh, Roger Campbell, and Shawn Roberts all fell during the day's play, as did WSOP Bracelet winner Jean Gaspard, Lily Kiletto, and Jeff Banghart.
The final 110 players will return tomorrow at 11 a.m. local time, and the plan is to play down to the final table of nine. Blinds will start at 800/1,600/1,600 for Day 2 play, and levels will remain one hour in length. Stay tuned to PokerNews to follow all the action as we reach our nationally televised final table of nine here in St. Louis, Missouri!