The action was non-stop on Saturday at the PokerStars Open Philadelphia series, where the last of four flights filled the Live! Casino & Hotel Philadelphia poker room all day long.
The largest of the opening $1,100 Main Event flights kept the registration desk busy right from the start of Day 1d, and it only took eight levels to hit 400 entries. That brought the prize pool over the $1,000,000 mark, more than doubling the guarantee.
In the end, 509 entries took part on the day, bringing the overall number to 1,154. The final prize pool was set at $1,107,840, with all of it to play for on Day 2 when the 146 remaining survivors return to the felt.
The end-of-day chip leader was Elliot Moore (822,000), who held off a late-night surge from Michael Tweedlie to carry the third-best overall stack into the final day of action.
Tweedlie climbed to 803,000 chips while knocking out Marshall Tarzy on the stone bubble, bringing an end to the long day of play.
Day 1d Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Elliot Moore | United States | 822,000 |
| 2 | Michael Tweedlie | United States | 803,000 |
| 3 | Justin Laudadio | United States | 789,000 |
| 4 | Edric Nicoli | United States | 741,000 |
| 5 | Joseph Barrett | United States | 645,000 |
| 6 | Thomas Romeo | United States | 559,000 |
| 7 | Keith Crowder | United States | 518,000 |
| 8 | Zachary Spergel | United States | 505,000 |
| 9 | Ari Katz | United States | 489,000 |
| 10 | Philip Saracino | United States | 484,000 |
The rest of the top five include Justin Laudadio (789,000), Edric Nicoli (741,000) and Joseph Barrett (645,000).
Among the hundreds of players to take a seat on Saturday were two more PokerStars Ambassadors, looking to join Maria Konnikova on Day 2.
Caitlin Comeskey arrived early in the day and played through several levels before hitting the rail. Jen Shahade also took her shot but came up short of the dinner break, losing much of her stack with a river bluff gone bad.
The blinds will be rolled back when Day 2 begins at 11:15 a.m. local time on Saturday, as the first two flights bagged up on Level 17. Players will see blinds of 4,000/8,000 with a big blind ante of 8,000.
Level will be lengthened to 60 minutes for the final day, with breaks scheduled after every two hours of play. With everyone already in the money, action should be fast and furious as players look to build a big stack and run deep in search of the PokerStars trophy. All 146 remaining players are in the money and have locked up $1,420.
$1,100 Main Event Top 10 Payouts
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1 | $184,800 |
| 2 | $130,525 |
| 3 | $84,695 |
| 4 | $62,760 |
| 5 | $47,415 |
| 6 | $38,330 |
| 7 | $31,660 |
| 8 | $25,095 |
| 9 | $18,625 |
| 10 | $14,280 |
As always, the PokerNews live reporting team will have everything covered as the title awaits here in Philadelphia.
