Belland, Jaeschke, Thurlow Lead Day 1b of 2019 Canterbury Park Fall Poker Classic $1,100 Main Event
The field has been set for Day 2 of the 2019 Canterbury Park Fall Poker Classic $1,100 Main Event.
Day 1b saw 219 entries add to the first flight’s 157 runners, bringing the two-day total up to 376 as 14 levels were played to conclusion. When Level 14 ended, 35 players remained with Steven Belland leading the way and bagging a stack of 243,000.
Belland had around half that figure going into the final level of the night before winning a few pots that sent him up the counts. Meanwhile, Cody Jaeschke (226,500) appeared to be a lock for the chip lead before losing a huge pot in the last couple minutes of the night to fall back into second in chips for the flight.
Justin Thurlow (217,500), Kou Vang (211,500), and Jason Seitz (190,500) round out the top five, with all three also experiencing significant gains to their stacks during the final hour of play for the evening. Other players to advance included Yao Yin (173,000), Blake Bohn (118,500), Tyler Kolness (111,000), and past champions Brad Berman (88,500) and Scotter Clark (61,000).
Among those who were not as fortunate in their trials included another trio of former champions in Mike Schneider (2012), Dennis Stevermer (2017), and Nghia Le (2018). Le, better known around the Minnesota poker community as ”3 Putts” will still have a shot at defending his title due to taking a shot at Day 1b after bagging the smallest stack of 39,000 on Day 1a.
The 35 to advance to Day 2 will add their names to the roster of 27 that punched their tickets from the initial flight, meaning that a field of 62 will combine under one roof for the first time to compete for the championship.
Day 2 will begin at 12:30 p.m. local time at the beginning of Level 15 (2,000/4,000/4,000). Levels will remain at 40 minutes in length and the tournament is scheduled to play down to a winner. However, just 45 are set to make it into the money, meaning there is plenty of work to be done for all who return.
PokerNews will be onsite covering the tournament to its conclusion. Come back and find out who will claim the title.
with Thurlow's winning hand of 
still tabled. The dealer was in the process of counting stacks and totaled Le's to be around 68,000 with Thurlow's totaling more than that, leaving Le dry on chips as the two exchanged a fist bump before Le got up and left.
and Thurlow was able to hit a safe river to score the knockout and vault his stack to over 213,500. He talked about it after the fact, saying that he had barely over starting stack when the level began. 
with action heads up between Stuart Luhm in the big blind and Shelly Morrill, who was on the button. Luhm checked to Morrill, who put out a bet of 12,000. Luhm went into the tank for over a half-minute.
to earn him the double and he pushed his stack forward to be counted. It was totaled to be 93,300 and Morrill paid it off, taking her under a six-figure stack despite being solidly above average. On the other hand, Luhm has likely taken over the chip lead with a monstrous stack of 210,200.
with action heads up between Tam Le, who was under the gun, and Scotter Clark who was in middle position. Le had a bet of 7,000 out in front of him and Clark was in the process of calling. The call brought the turn 
and both players checked once more to take the hand to showdown. 
for a queen-high straight and Clark mucked his hand. There was talk about hope that Clark was going to take a stab at the pot on one of the later streets to steal it away from Le.
and action was on the big blind, who had checked and was facing a bet of 15,000 from Matt Alexander out of the cutoff. He thought for close to a minute and then tossed in chips to call.
for a straight flush. His opponent mucked.
with about 13,000 in the middle before stacks went in.
was clean, leaving Eelkema out in front but the river 
