Day 1b of the 2016 Western New York Poker Challenge Main Event Starts Now!
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The second and final starting flight for the 2016 Western New York Poker Challenge Main Event will get going just steps from Niagara Falls on the Hotel Balcony of the Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino beginning at 11 a.m. local time this morning.
The tournament features a $200,000 guaranteed prize pool and is already well on its to surpassing that, drawing 103 entries for the first starting flight Friday.
An even bigger field of players is expected to pony up the $1,000 buy-in today, for which they will receive a 30,000-chip starting stack.
As it was yesterday, the plan is to play through 15 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.
On Friday, just 20 players pushed through to tomorrow's Day 2 with a familiar face grabbing the overnight lead. Alex Visbisky, who led the final table of of the 2015 Seneca Fall Poker Classic Main Event this past November before posting a third-place finish, set the pace, bagging 358,500. In fact, he was the only player over the 300,000 mark when play wrapped up.
Poker events at Seneca consistently draw the top rounders from in and around Western New York and a tough field is expected today.
Canadian Buck Ramsay, who also won the 2014 Seneca Niagara Summer Slam Main Event and made a final table appearance in the Fall finale in November, comes in as defending Western New York Poker Challenge Main Event Champion. He took two kicks at the can yesterday, but ran bad both times, getting aces cracked and losing a race, although chances are he'll take at least one more shot today.
PokerNews will be on hand from start to finish today, and you can follow all the 2016 Western New York Poker Challenge Main Event action right here in this space.