$1,000 Main Event
Day 1a Started
2016 Western New York Poker Challenge
$1,000 Main Event
Day: 1a
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2016 Western New York Poker Challenge
Buy-in
$910
Prize Pool
$215,379
Entries
244
Level
27
Blinds
25,000 / 50,000
Ante
5,000
The 2016 Western New York Poker Challenge Main Event Starts Now!
![[user127999]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
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.
Level: 1
Blinds: 50/100
Ante: 0
Get Tracking With The PokerNews My Stack App
Level 1
: 50/100, 0 ante
PokerNews has activated the MyStack App for the Main Event of the Western New York Poker Challenge, allowing you to directly adjust your chip counts in our live reporting blog using your iPhone or Android phone!
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. Your followers can see all the live action that you're involved in.
Click here to download the My Stack app for iPhone, or click here to download the My Stack app for Android.
Be forewarned, however, that any abuse of the app will result in account suspension or termination.
Good Morning Buffalo!
Level 1
: 50/100, 0 ante
It's the usual quiet start here at the 2016 Western New York Poker Challenge Main Event.
There's four short-handed tables running right now and a fifth beginning to fill up with a steady stream of latecomers at the cage singing up.
Right now the board reads 25 entries and counting, ten minutes into the day's first level.
Get Up Stand Up!
Level 1
: 50/100, 0 ante
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.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
48,000 | 48,000 |
|
30,000 | 30,000 |
|
30,000 | 30,000 |
|
30,000 | |
|
30,000 | 30,000 |
|
30,000 | 30,000 |
|
|
30,000 | 30,000 |
|
30,000 | 30,000 |
|
20,000 | 20,000 |
Level: 2
Blinds: 75/150
Ante: 0
Crozier Climbs Quickly
Level 2
: 75/150, 0 ante
Depew, New York's George Crozier has picked up pocket aces at least once here today.
"I'm not going to tell you what I had the rest of the time," he said with a wry smile.
No matter what he's had, they've been winners, and he's now joined the leader board, right at the top now ten minutes in to the day's second level.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
48,000 |
Miller Time For Ramsay
Level 2
: 75/150, 0 ante
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.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
60,000 |
Level: 3
Blinds: 100/200
Ante: 0