It's a gorgeous Spring morning just steps from the majesty that is Niagara Falls with the first of two starting flights for the 2016 Western New York Poker Challenge Main Event set to kick off at 11 a.m. local time.
The tournament features a $200,000 guaranteed prize pool and players will start out 30,000 chips in the hunt for a piece of it.
The two opening flights will see players try to weave their way through 15 full 40 minute levels. The levels will increase to 50 minutes on Day 2, and 60 minutes on Day 3. There will be a 45-minute dinner break at the end of Level 10 today and registration and reentry will be open until it ends with the start of the 11th level.
Big events at Seneca Niagara always attract the cream of the Western New York poker crop and this one should be no different. One player expected to turn up is the formidable Buck Ramsay. This Canadian has dominated the poker scene here for the past couple of years, and comes in as defending Western New York Poker Challenge Main Event Champion.
Ramsay also won the 2014 Seneca Niagara Summer Slam Main Event, made a final table appearance in the finale of the last big series in the Buffalo area before this week's Challenge and will certainly be one to watch as this Main Event plays out.
Of course, PokerNews will be covering all the entrants as they contest one of the area's most prestigious poker titles and you can follow along from start to finish, right here in this space.
Tim Wildrick told PokerNews he's had a couple less-than-noteworthy hands hold up in the early going and has emerged as the Level 1 chip leader as a result.
The rest of the early leader board appears to be filling up with Seneca Niagara regs as the entries are now up to 42 heading into Level 2.
Defending champ Buck Ramsay must have thought he was off to a great start when he picked up pocket aces here in Level 2.
Corning, New York's Greg Miller and his made sure that wasn't the case. Miller got all of Ramsay's chips, and a few more from a third player when he flopped trip treys and held on.
Ramsay hit the reentry button immediately and Miller, who made sixth in the $2,500 at the 2016 WPT Fallsview Poker Classic across the border earlier this year for almost $60,000 CAD, and is still whining about the weak Canadian Dollar, has risen to the top of the early counts.
Grand Island, NY's Dave Grana may not look to happy in the attached photo, but we're betting he's smiling on the inside.
Mostly because he flopped a set of sevens against a set of fours and got all his chips in the middle, holding on to grab the early lead in the latter half of Level 3.
'Tricky' Ricky Block, whose stellar record here at Seneca Niagara includes a Summer Slam prelim win and a Fall Classic Main Event Title, has emerged as the Level 5 chip leader, closing in on 100,000 already.
He managed to river trip sevens in a four-bet pot with the to start his ascent up the leader board. The very next hand he picked up two kings to snatch a few more chips and is off and running.
Buck Ramsay open for 1,100 from middle position with the and shipped it in for a little more than half a starting stack when Grand Island, NY's Ron Tebo made it 3,300 from late position.
Tebo called with the and flopped a set and a sweat on a board. It ran out , however, making Tebo a boat, and then quads, to send the defending champ out for the second time today.
This time it appears he will not reenter and Tebo, who coincidentally shares a birthday and four-fifths of a last name with former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow, now has a contending stack.
Pat Tighe latest hunt for a big score starts now after two huge doubles have given him a top ten stack.
First, he doubled up with queens versus top pair jacks, then got the rest of that opponent's chips and most of Dave Grana's in a massive, almost 80,000-chip pot.
Tighe got it in on an flop holding versus Grana's and held through an run out, leaving Grana, who had already left before they did the math, with just a few chips.
Tighe had a decent year in 2015, cashing for more than $20,000 in Niagara Falls area events and appears poised for another deep run now as we say goodbye to Grana.
Maria Parlatore, who admitted at the break to suddenly not feeling very well, has just as suddenly built a decent stack.
Alex Visbisky somehow made quads again to climb above 80,000. Then he gave about 20,000 of that to Parlatore when she got it in preflop with against his nines and a third player's queens, finding an ace on the river to triple up.
He's now back to 65,000 and she's just under that.
Greg Miller has vaulted into a huge chip lead and is closing in on 300,000 already.
He could bag now and be good, but wants to continue the heater he's been on that started when he picked off one bluffer, who Miller said "hadn't played a hand since the eight-grade picnic," but suddenly decided to spazz off all his chips, running into his aces.
He picked up kings soon after, then made a set of sixes, and is now promising to bag even bigger once this flight is through.
Alex Visbisky and James Morin just clashed again and this time it was for a lot more marbles.
The hand started with a Cameron Bartolotta 4,000-chip open. Visbisky made it 9,000 on the button and Morin woke up with a hand he felt he could four-bet from the small blind, making it 25,000.
Bartolotta turned tail and ran, but after Visbisky five-bet to 55,000, Morin six-bet jammed. Visbisky beat him to the pot with a call, slamming his on the felt. Morin was left wondering why with the and it only got worse for him through the run out.
Visbisky jumped into a dead heat for the lead and although Morin had some 35,000 left, he shoved those with a dominated ace and said goodbye soon after.
![[user127999]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
made sure that wasn't the case. Miller got all of Ramsay's chips, and a few more from a third player when he flopped trip treys and held on.
to start his ascent up the leader board. The very next hand he picked up two kings to snatch a few more chips and is off and running.
and shipped it in for a little more than half a starting stack when Grand Island, NY's Ron Tebo made it 3,300 from late position.
and flopped a set and a sweat on a 
board. It ran out 
, however, making Tebo a boat, and then quads, to send the defending champ out for the second time today. 
flop holding 
versus Grana's 
run out, leaving Grana, who had already left before they did the math, with just a few chips.
against his nines and a third player's queens, finding an ace on the river to triple up.
into his aces.
and it only got worse for him through the 
run out.