Over 29,000 Entries for Day 1 of the PokerStars Blowout Series: $215 NLHE [8-Max, The Big Blowout!]
Day 1 of the PokerStars Blowout Series: $215 NLHE [8-Max, The Big Blowout!] has come to an end after a bit of a tumultuous start. After 17 levels of 20 minutes each, 29,463 entries were collected for a total prize pool of $5,892,600 which easily surpassed the $5,000,000 guarantee that was placed on it. Out of all those entries, 6,256 players have made it through to Day 2.
"Magdebob1993" claimed the chip lead in the final hand of the night when they doubled through "TANE44KA31" with the turned straight while the latter had rivered two pair. "Magdebob1993" will coming back for Day 2 on Monday, January 4, at 6:05 p.m. GMT with 763,112 in chips. They are followed by "Pstars0517" (651,280), "etxnl01" (620,038), "Schmitzen" (584,048), and "tadeaus" (582,513) in the top five of the counts.
Out of the seven Team PokerStars members who participated today, five have made Day 2. Fintan "EasyWithAces" Hand leads the pack with 277,076 while Ramon "RamonColillas" Colillas made it through with 231,181. Ben "Spraggy" Spragg, Lex "L. Veldhuis" Veldhuis, and Arlie "Prince Pablo" Shaban bagged an below-average stack so have some work to do once play resumes for Day 2.
Due to a technical issue, the tournament was paused for just over 50 minutes and this has had an effect on the late registration period. It was originally slated to close at 6:05 p.m. GMT, just before the Day 2 start of 6:10 p.m. on Monday, but according to the tournament lobby, the registration period will now close at 6:52 p.m. GMT. It remains to be seen if this will change in any way.
When play resumes, the level duration will be reduced to 12 minutes each until there are 90 players left. The level duration will then increase to 15 minutes. Play will continue until there are 24 players before they will pause for Day 3 on Tuesday, January 5 which will resume play at 6:05 p.m. GMT. Once there are 16 players, the level duration will increase again, this time back to the original 20 minutes each.
PokerNews will be back from the start of Day 2 to bring you all the live updates so make sure to return.