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Start-of-day chip leader Tom Babiarz has steadily increased his lead on the field today, up close to the 300,000-chip mark as Level 17 comes to a close.
In fact, he's chipped up without benefit of any big hands or major confrontations thus far.
"Playing tight," he told PokerNews.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
290,000 | 35,300 |
Steve Auld opened to 7,000 and Nick Walker defended his big blind with 
, absolutely smashing the 
flop.
Walker led for 10,000, Auld ripped it in and Walker made the call for his tournament life with the Broadway straight. Auld was on and the turn gave him outs.
However, the river bricked, and as Walker doubled to the top of the chip counts, Auld was left with a rebuilding project.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
250,000 | 136,200 |
|
|
70,000 | -68,000 |
Facing an 18,000-chip open, Peter Patta three-bet to 40,000, then snap-called when the opener shipped it in.
Patta held 
and his opponent was on 
. Aces held on a 
board to send Patta up to 200,000.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
200,000 | 91,000 |
Top local rounder Travell Thomas turned up just before the break, but didn't get to his seat in time to play a hand.
The first hand after he picked up pocket kings and busted a player on pocket queens all in preflop to jump up closer to the top of the leader board.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
225,000 | 51,600 |
Level: 17
Blinds: 2,000/4,000
Ante: 500
The players are headed off on a 15-minute break with the tournament staff coloring up and removing the 100 denomination chips.
Nicholas Anderson just moved up to a spot near the top of the counts in a massive hand that saw him get it in with pocket kings, fall behind against a flopped set of nines, then take the lead back by turning a set of his own.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
170,000 | 77,300 |
Kristan Makiewicz got her short stack all in with versus 
and got lucky to hit a pair on the 
flop.
However, her opponent got luckier, going runner-runner on the turn and 
river to make a flush and send Makiewicz packing.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
Busted |
In just the first few hands, Peter DeSantis called a Nicholas May shove with 
.
May was on and looked to knock out DeSantis as the 
board rolled out to the turn. Then suddenly, like manna from heaven for DeSantis, the 
came down on the river to double him up.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
125,000 | 64,100 |
|
|
25,000 | -60,500 |
Level: 16
Blinds: 1,500/3,000
Ante: 400
