$1,000 Main Event
Day 1a Started
$1,000 Main Event
Day 1a Started
After a week of preliminary events at the 2015 Seneca Fall Poker Classic, including two $50,000 guaranteed tournaments and more than $150,000 in prize money doled out, the $200,000 Guaranteed 2015 Seneca Fall Poker Classic $1,000 Main Event kicks off this morning.
The first of two Day 1 starting flights will go off on the balcony inside the Seneca Resort & Casino beginning at 11 a.m. local time.
After hosting a bevvy of satelittes and juicing local rounders' bankrolls throughout the week leading up to the Main Event, staff at the Niagara Falls Poker Room are expecting some big numbers for this one.
Among the players likely to get in on the action include the past two Seneca Fall Poker Classic Main Event champions, as both 2014 champ Rick Block and 2013 champ Andy Spears have been see kicking around the prelims. The top rounders from across Western New York and beyond always turn out in droves for a shot at a big score and Seneca Niagara poker glory and since its on the balcony, the event is open to anyone 18 and up.
Players start out with 30,000 in tournament chips with plans to play 15 40-minute levels on Day 1. There is a 45-minute dinner break following Level 10 and registration and unlimited re-entry is available until it is over. Even those bagging chips tonight can try again on Saturday's second starting flight, taking thier best stack forward to Sunday's Day 2, where the levels increase to 50 minutes and the final table will be set.
They will play down to champion Monday inside the poker room on a day featuring 60-minute levels.
PokerNews will be on hand throughout, bringing you live coverage right from the floor of the Main Event, so get your popcorn ready, this is bound to be one action-packed event worth watching.
Level: 1
Blinds: 50/100
Ante: 0
The PokerNews My Stack app is available to players throughout the 2015 Seneca Fall Poker Classic Main Event.
The popular app connects poker players right to the PokerNews live feed. If you are playing in this, or any tournament that PokerNews is reporting on, you can use the app to update your own chip counts, post comments, and even share photos with other PokerNews readers from around the world.
You can download the app for iPhone or Android now to get started. Then, create a new PokerNews account or update your current one to start updating your status immediately.
It's always a classic showdown when Eddy Williams is in the box.
The veteran dealer has actually been pitching cards here since the day the Niagara Falls Poker Room opened a little over a decade ago.
Williams was a Stickman in the Craps Pit here before they moved him over to poker, and he's been running one of the tightest games in Western New York ever since.
But it is literally a classic showdown every time Eddy Williams is in the box.
He calls the game loud enough for the entire room to hear, and every single time the cards go on their back preflop, Williams calls it a classic. It could be the versus the , or the up against the — It doesn't really matter what is turned over, Wlliams will call it a "classic showdown."
Every now and then he even manages to get it right, with a real classic like aces over kings or the over the showing up.
When you really stop and think about it, maybe they are all classics? Certainly they would seem to be over 10 years at the tables where you must have seen it all, at least twice.
Regardless, waiting for the next classic showdown at Williams' table is one of the great pleasure of playing in the Niagara Falls Poker Room and the players consistently rave about how Eddy Williams runs a game.
A little bit of a slow start sees most tables still playing short handed and the board reading 31 entries.
They move into Level 2 with a steady stream of latecomers hitting the cage and a number of those expected to turn up apparently biding their time before doing so.
Level: 2
Blinds: 75/150
Ante: 0
A regular at the Niagara Falls Poker Room since the day they opened the doors, you won't find a more popular player than Anthony "Gucci" Pugliese.
That's why so many regulars here were so sad to hear he was diagnosed with ALS over the past year. The former Special Education Teacher started riding a scooter to get around the property this summer, and doesn't really come around as much as he used to anymore.
He did fire away in the the 2015 Seneca Fall Poker Classic Event #5 $335 Bounty last night, and somehow it all came up Gucci.
Pugliese got all the way to heads up, chopping for $2,998 a piece with perennial Seneca winner Blake Napierala.
Living with ALS can be an expensive proposition, and the three grand will certainly help, but Pugliese is going to need a lot more to deal with this debilitating disease.
As a result, the local community is running a benefit for him this Wednesday, Nov. 25 at 6 p.m. at The Meeting Place just outside Niagara Falls. There will be food and drinks and tickets are just $50 and available in the Niagara Falls Poker Room or at the door for anyone interested in coming out.
They head into Level 3 now with the board reading 45 entries and a number of familiar faces in the crowd, including one of Western New York's top tournament players: Randy Pfeifer.
Pfeifer is coming off a 15th-place finish at WPT Montreal just days ago and will be looking to book his first million-dollar year in tournaments with $997,028 in 2012 cashes coming into today.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Chris Gras | 30,000 | 30,000 |
Daniel Wagner | 30,000 | 30,000 |
Randy Pfeifer | 30,000 | 30,000 |
'Buffalo' Ray Williams | 30,000 | 30,000 |
Maria Parlatore | 30,000 | 30,000 |
Joe Ciffa | 30,000 | 30,000 |
Silvio DeRubeis | 30,000 | 30,000 |
Alex Visbisky | 30,000 | 30,000 |
Level: 3
Blinds: 100/200
Ante: 0