The 2015 Seneca Niagara Falls Summer Slam continued today with the fifth of six starting flights in Event #3, a $50 No-Limit Hold'em tournament with a $25,000 guarantee.
This flight drew a total of 170 entries, playing down to just 22 remaining players as Level 15 came to a close. Adding these 170 entries to the 585 from the first four flights means a total of 755 entries have already helped the event push well past the $25,000 prizepool guarantee with one more flight to come.
Today, Bob Kiehl used his usually maniacal style to build a big lead part way through the flight and ended up bagging big, but in the final five hands of the night, Alex Rivera grabbed the chip lead busting John Stempien in a huge hand, eventually bagging up 168,900.
These 22 survivors will join the 76 from the first four flights to come back and play down to a champion Thursday. At this point, they will all be chasing Day 1d chip leader Tom Babiarz and his overall leading 254,700-chip stack.
In the meantime, the event will continues with the sixth and final starting flight beginning at 6 p.m. local time this evening.
Tune in to PokerNews at that time for updates of all the action live from the floor of the poker room at Seneca Niagara.
Maniac Bob Kiehl had kings cracked and queens beaten by quad fours before deciding premium starting hands might not be the path to riches in this event.
Instead, he chose to pick up a flush draw, get it in against a better one and river a straight to drag a massive pot, becoming the first player past the 100,000-chip mark and the flight's current chip leader.
Bob Kiehl is building stacks like he's never built stacks before with players and dealers around the room calling him a maniac.
This time he got in a massive three-way pot with one player all in, then shoved 20,000 at the 16,000-chip pot on the turn of a board.
Early leader Mike Rellinger made sure re-entry was still available before calling off his last 10,000 with and Kiehl's was the best hand with the original all-in player on .
Bob Szczodrowski is off to a blazing hot start here in Niagara Falls. The Lancaster, NY resident just became the fastest player to 75,000 in any of the first five flights for this event and is crushing all comers.
First he turned into a boat, then collected a massive pot when his opponent rivered a smaller one. A few hands later he cracked aces, turning a gutshot with .
Alicia LaPorte Pachla blind raised the cutoff to 600 and Mike Rellinger made the call on the button.
The flop fell and Pachla fired out 1,500. Rellinger floated and the turn brought the . Pachla simply jammed it in and Rellinger snapped off the huge overbet, quickly turning over .
Pachla sheepishly showed and headed to the cage to re-enter as the river bricked and Rellinger collected the early double to jump into the lead.
A hand or two later he managed to flop a boat with pocket fives on a board and get another player's more than full stack when he got it in with pocket queens on the turn.
The 2015 Seneca Niagara Falls Summer Slam continues today with the fifth of six starting flights in Event #3, a $50 No-Limit Hold'em tournament with a $25,000 guarantee, kicking off at 11 a.m. local time in Western New York.
There will also be one more starting flight at 6 pm. this evening with any and all survivors coming back to play down to a champion Thursday. So far there are a spirited 76 players going through to Day 2 with Tom Babiarz leading them all, sitting on top of a massive 254,700-chip stack.
At this price point, and with this many chances to get in, this event has already attracted a slew of local grinders firing multiple bullets and recreational players taking shots, creating a massive prizepool that is guaranteed to smash the guarantee by the time two more flights are through. In fact, there have already been 585 entries with the current estimates putting the prizepool at $23,400.
At the 2015 Western New York Poker Challenge in March, Seneca ran a similar event that drew 1,026 entries over six different starting flights creating a $41,040 prizepool. Top local pro Randy Pfeifer was crowned champ.
As with all other flights, players will start with 10,000 in tournament chips with plans to play 15 full 20-minute levels. Registration and unlimited re-entry is available until the start of Level 13.
Stay tuned for a ton of action from the falls as the PokerNews Live Reporting team will be on hand for it all.
![[user127999]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
to flop top pair, river a flush and crack Stempien's 
.
to pick up a flush draw, get it in against a better one and river a straight to drag a massive pot, becoming the first player past the 100,000-chip mark and the flight's current chip leader.
board.
was the best hand with the original all-in player on 
.
into a boat, then collected a massive pot when his opponent rivered a smaller one. A few hands later he cracked aces, turning a gutshot with 
.
. Pachla simply jammed it in and Rellinger snapped off the huge overbet, quickly turning over 
. 
and headed to the cage to re-enter as the river bricked and Rellinger collected the early double to jump into the lead.
