Katie "KatieStone" Stone Leads Final 8 into Day 2 of Event #11: $125K GTD 8-Max NLHE Championship with $82,945 on the Line

The partypoker US Online Series has now seen the first day of Event #11: $125K GTD 8-Max NLHE Championship come to an end. An enormous 464 runners showed up for the $1,060 buy-in event and when the last chance saloon had closed for business only eight were left. Leading the way is none other than BorgataPoker.com Sponsored Pro Katie "KatieStone" Stone who is sitting atop the leaderboard with $82,945 up for grabs.

Stone has already amassed more than $900,000 in online career cashes and could break the million mark with a win tomorrow. She started the day off slow, dropping below starting but once above the average she stayed on that path as she kept climbing during every level. Her well-timed patience paid off in the end when she really caught some winder under her sails, dropping two people right before the official final table was formed, catapulting her into the lead to end the day.

Closest on the totem pole behind Stone is "Syracuse03" who will be directly on her right throughout the day. "Syracuse03" stayed off the radar for the better part of the day but managed to build a stack with the biggest hand happening against James "Bagels" Lillis on a queen-high board. Lillis shoved his ace-king on a queen-high turned board and "Syracuse03" hit the tank. Ultimately they called with their ace-queen and the board bricked out, eliminating Lillis as "Syracuse03" hit the ten million mark first, a stack was in the lead until Stone finished the day off with an elimination spree.

Official Final Table

Seat	Player	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	Syracuse03	10,857,736	78
2	Katie "KatieStone" Stone	11,248,790	80
3	Dan “mj23style” Sewnig	2,592,676	19
4	Mikecoliva	4,349,065	31
5	HueJasole777	6,981,178	50
6	DMacMoney	4,487,263	32
7	Brian "TopCreature" Sherrier	2,077,872	15
8	Mahizzle	2,805,420	20

The partypoker US Online Series Event #11: $125K GTD 8-Max NLHE Championship had the biggest guarantee of any tournament on the slate, a guarantee that was absolutely crushed before the tournament event began with over 350 runners to start the day. The overall would end with 464, creating a monstrous $464,000 prize pool with the top 72 set to hit a payday and an eventual winner pulling in $82,945.

Many notable players jumped into this event in the hopes of a Day 2 birth but failed to do som some of those well-knowns did happen to cash and that list includes Kevin “sofcknsick” Campbell, Angel "chromeking" Lopez, Orson "borgatcha" Young, Yong "IReadYrSoul" Know, Michael "Gags30" Gagliano, Anthony "Flawlessbinkage" Maio, Stanton "Stonniepokes" Tentnowski, Stephanie "Stephhub0331" Hubbard, and Borgata favorite Michael "ParxBigStax" Marder.

All players are guaranteed at least $10,440 for their efforts with a pay jump coming with every elimination. The remaining eight players will be returning to 70,000/140,000 blinds with 1:57 left on the clock before the level up. Play is set to begin at 7 p.m. EST and will not halt until a champion is crowned, taking down the title along with the $82,945 first-place prize money.

That wraps it up for the Day 1 Event #11: $125K GTD 8-Max NLHE Championship PokerNews coverage, but tune in tomorrow for all of the live updates as the action unfolds on the final day.