Joshi Joinks the Overall Chip Lead in the $400 Large Stack Event of the 2020 Potomac Winter Poker Open
With 149 entries on Day 1a and 112 entries on Day 1b, the day has finally come to an end at 5 a.m. local time for the players of the $400 Large Stack tournament. Day 1a paid out 17 people with 11 players making it through to Day 2 and Day 1b had 13 players cashing with 8 players returning to the felt in the MGM Grand Ballroom in the hotel lobby of the MGM National Harbor. The $100,000 guaranteed prize pool in the first edition of the 2020 Potomac Winter Poker Open wasn’t reached so they players are enjoying a tasty overlay in this event.
On Day 1a it was Massoud Nooralian who would claim the chip lead with 880,000 in chips, narrowly beating Joel Doney as he collected 858,000 chips today. But this pales in comparison to the Day 1b chip leader Sachin Joshi who won a huge pot during the latter stages of the day against Divakaran Marella who had flopped top two pair when he shoved more than half a million into the aces of Joshi. Unlucky for him, his two pair would get counterfeited on the river to create a new overall chip leader for the tournament. Joshi will be coming back after a short night's rest with a whopping 1,332,000.
When the 19 surviving players out of 261 entries in total return at noon local time on Thursday, February 13, they will first play the remainder of Level 19 where Day 1a stopped with 42 minutes and 3 seconds left. The level duration will remain at 45 minutes until the final table has been reached. The level duration will then be increased to 60 minutes and play will continue until a brand-new winner has been found.
PokerNews will be there from the first raise until the final all-in, so keep following the updates.
Day 2 Seat Draw
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 | 2 | Jeromy Bittan | United States | 658,000 | 41 |
| 24 | 4 | Kevin Ryan | United States | 633,000 | 40 |
| 24 | 5 | Stephan Waters | United States | 265,000 | 17 |
| 24 | 6 | Chris Zelesnick | United States | 684,000 | 43 |
| 24 | 7 | Dong Jun Ji | United States | 574,000 | 36 |
| 24 | 9 | Barbara Rogers | United States | 349,000 | 22 |
| 27 | 1 | Massoud Nooralian | United States | 880,000 | 55 |
| 27 | 4 | Vincent Marchesano | United States | 280,000 | 18 |
| 27 | 5 | John Kim (VA) | United States | 413,000 | 26 |
| 27 | 6 | Sachin Joshi | United Kingdom | 1,332,000 | 83 |
| 27 | 7 | Ryan McPherson | United States | 539,000 | 34 |
| 27 | 8 | Ali Salah-Eddine | United States | 450,000 | 28 |
| 27 | 9 | Ben Strumpf | United States | 665,000 | 42 |
| 28 | 1 | Charles Coddington | United States | 243,000 | 15 |
| 28 | 5 | Andrew Whetzel | United States | 595,000 | 37 |
| 28 | 6 | Ken Fishback | United States | 275,000 | 17 |
| 28 | 7 | William Lawson | United States | 466,000 | 29 |
| 28 | 8 | Dien Le | United States | 179,000 | 11 |
| 28 | 9 | Joel Doney | United States | 858,000 | 54 |
to give Whetzel the higher pair to jump ahead.
for Karl to pick up some extra outs to stay alive but the river completed the board with the 
for Whetzel to stay ahead and eliminate Karl before being able to make it to Day 2. 
for Joshi to hold with the higher kicker to eliminate Nguyen.
, Marella tabled his hand showing 
for two pair. 
on the turn didn't change anything, but the 
for Joshi to hold with the pocket queens to burst the bubble by eliminating Smith.
flop as he was covered by the latter.
which didn't help Kotz and neither did the 
