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Toronto, Canada's Geoff McNeely won a big hand to climb up to a spot near the top of the counts here in Level 6.
A full house over a flush did the trick for McNeely, who seems excited to be playing super deep now, with over 150 big blinds in his stack.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
95,000 |
It's normally quite tough to knock Paul "The Barnacle" McLean out of a tournament, but it'll be near impossible to do that here today, since he's already booked a seat in Sunday's Day 2.
McLean bagged a healthy 201,500 in Friday's first Main Event flight, but because he also won a second non-transferable seat through a $90 satellite in the Niagara Falls Poker Room, he's taking advantage of the best stack forward policy and taking another kick at the can today.
So far, his efforts to better yesterday's run are going swimmingly, with McLean grabbing the Level 6 chip lead moments ago.
He flopped a set of sevens and got it in against two shorter stacks with flush draws. They missed and McLean is closing in on 150,000 already.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
145,000
-56,500
|
-56,500 |
Level: 7
Blinds: 250/500
Ante: 50
Paul "The Barnacle" McLean is still clinging on to the chip lead like it's the side of a boat, and Kurtis Boutelle is treading water nearby at the top of the counts, but the man who finished runner-up to Boutelle in the 2015 Seneca Fall Poker Classic has also been spotted in the room building a threatening stack.
They've got Nathan Torrance and his 85,000-chip stack tucked way in the back corner of a very busy poker room floor.
Every table in the Niagara Falls Poker Room is either full or being filled nearing the end of Level 7 with 228 entries on the board already.
Plus, registration and reentry is still open for three more levels and a 45-minute dinner break.
Players came to fire today, the cash games are also buzzing here with huge waiting lists, and Day 1b of the 2016 Seneca Niagara Falls Summer Slam Main Event is getting ready to post a big number for entries and reentries as they move forward into Level 8.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
85,000
85,000
|
85,000 |
Level: 8
Blinds: 300/600
Ante: 75
Chris Harker raised it up with aces and a player behind three bet. There was one cold caller and Harker four-bet to 10,000.
The three-bettor jammed 18,000, the cold caller folded and Harker snap-called with aces against ace-king. Aces held without much drama and he's got a six-figure stack now.
Joining him near the top of the leaderboard is Grand Island, NY's Russ Hall, who kept calling down bets with the best of it until he had 115,000 in his stack, and Toronto, Canada's Michael Tieu, who is simply "destroying" on the way to 106,000.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
115,000
115,000
|
115,000 |
|
106,000
106,000
|
106,000 |
|
105,000
75,000
|
75,000 |
Level: 9
Blinds: 400/800
Ante: 100
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
130,000 | |
|
123,000 | |
|
119,000 | |
|
115,000 | |
|
|
110,000 | |
|
|
105,000 | |
|
95,000 | |
|
|
95,000 | |
|
|
86,000 | |
|
80,000 | |
|
80,000 | |
|
|
80,000 | |
|
|
75,000 | |
|
70,000 | |
|
|
65,000 | |
|
60,000 | |
|
60,000 | |
|
50,000 | |
|
28,000 | |
|
14,000 | |
|
5,200 | |
|
5,000 | |
|
|
Busted | |
|
Busted | |
|
Busted |
Paolo Lombardo has grabbed the chip lead heading into the last level before the 45-minute dinner break.
He four-bet nines, and when his heads-up opponent five bet shoved aces, he called it off and binked a nine.
In the meantime, a suddenly assertive Brett Collson is picking up pot after pot with some well timed aggression.
A little earlier he got aces in a battle of the blinds with Kurtis Boutelle and showed the goods after getting one bet in pre and continuing on the flop. Then, he was just seen firing away trough three streets on a 
board, getting a fold on the river to pick up another 35,000 on his way to a spot near the top of the counts.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
155,000
85,000
|
85,000 |
|
|
152,000 |
Level: 10
Blinds: 500/1,000
Ante: 100
