After a long week of preliminary events, the 2014 Summer Slam Main Event kicked off Friday morning in Niagara Falls. The $600 tournament features a $100,000 guaranteed prize pool and two starting flights before a champion is crowned on Sunday.
Day 1a attracted a larger-than-expected field of 130 entries, meaning only 57 more are needed to meet the guaranteed prize pool. Only 16 players survived on Friday and the tournament staff was forced to stop the tournament 20 minutes early because the field was whittled down to the final 12 percent.
Leading the way after Day 1a was Alex Rivera, who won this same Summer Slam Main Event in 2012. Rivera will take 379,000 into Day 2 and is followed on the leaderboard by Ray Book (300,500), Budwey Salhab (286,500) and Glenn Pawlowki (240,500).
Rivera hit two huge draws late in the day to take the chip lead from Book. First, on a flop of Rivera committed his 80,000-chip stack with the for a nut flush draw and David Schrader called with the for two pair.
Rivera stood up and celebrated as the completed his flush on the turn, and the hit the river to send a big pot his way.
A short time later, Jamil Wakil committed his last 100,000 with the on a flop against Rivera who tabled a huge draw with the . The on the turn sealed it for Rivera, who eliminated Wakil and crossed the 300,000-chip mark for the first time all day. He continued building during the final level to secure his lead at the end of the day.
Summer Slam Main Event Day 1a Survivors
Place
Player
Chips
1
Alex Rivera
379,000
2
Ray Book
300,500
3
Budwey Salhab
286,500
4
Glenn Pawlowski
240,500
5
Jacob Ostrander
181,000
6
Rondell Bogner
165,000
7
Shawn Wilmot
163,500
8
David Schrader
130,500
9
Matt Parry
120,500
10
Troy John Hurley
106,500
11
Jason Nablo
102,500
12
Daniel Okulowski
96,500
13
Randy Lingenfelter
88,500
14
Jeff Kandefer
83,500
15
Brian Healy
82,000
16
Karen DiNunzo
73,500
The Summer Slam Main Event continues Saturday at 11 a.m. with Flight 1b, and a bigger field is expected for the weekend. We’ll have complete coverage of the tournament until a champion is crowned so keep your browsers locked to PokerNews.com until the conclusion!
Peter Raimondi shoved for 49,000 from early position and Matt Parry called directly behind. Action folded to Budwey Salhab who moved all in for 92,000 total. Parry tossed in a call and put the other two at risk of elimination.
Raimondi:
Salhab:
Parry:
The board ran out and Salhab scooped a much-needed pot to climb to 240,000 in chips.
The first five winners of the Seneca Niagara Summer Slam each received trophies to signify their accomplishment. But for the $600 Main Event, it's all about the belt.
Playing off the WWE's Summer Slam wrestling event that takes place every August, the Seneca Poker Room is giving away a championship belt to the winner of its own Summer Slam Main Event. The heavy-duty strap is sitting inside of a glass case here in the poker room and has caught the eye of many players.
DJ MacKinnon already has plans for the belt should he win the title on Sunday.
Welcome PokerNews' coverage of the 2014 Summer Slam at the Seneca Niagara Casino and Hotel. For more than a week, players have been flocking to the Seneca Poker Room to compete in the first five events of the annual series. Today marks the climax of the Summer Slam as the $600 No-Limit Hold'em Main Event will kick off with the first of two starting flights.
The Main Event is a three-day tournament with registration and unlimited re-entries available for the first 10 levels on Day 1. Players will begin with 20,000 in chips and compete for 15 40-minute levels on the first day, with the eventual champion being crowned on Sunday. Last year, Andy Spears took down the $600 Summer Slam Main Event for more than $23,000.
While this is the largest buy in event held at the Summer Slam, PokerNews was also on hand to cover four of the events on the schedule over the past week. Be sure to take a look back at our coverage as we chronicled how Joe Ciffa won two titles and 10 players agreed to an event chop in Event #5 last night.
Play kicks off at 11 a.m. and we will be here providing all of the latest from the tournament floor. Be sure to stay tuned as this exciting event begins!