Alex Rivera Leads After Day 1a of Summer Slam Main Event, Eyes 2nd Title
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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!