The first of two starting flights for the $200,000 guaranteed 2017 Seneca Fall Poker Classic Main Event drew 95 entries at the Niagara Falls Poker Room inside a stuffed to the gills Seneca Niagara Casino & Resort Friday.
The turnout was almost as large as last year's Fall Classic Main Day 1a when the tournament went on to set a new record of 300 entries for a Seneca Niagara Main Event. However, a new record remains a possibility with a normally large Day 1b field expected tomorrow and the satellites drawing big tonight.
No matter how you look at it, the $200,000 guarantee should be just an afterthought.
By the time 15 levels of play were done today, a total of 19 players survived. 2017 Seneca Fall Poker Classic $300 Opening Event runner-up Leo Kaplin continued to run hot and bagged the biggest stack. Apparently he owes it all to his eight-year-old son, who told him to call with good hands and fold bad ones. Sage advice.
Kaplin notched 358,500, but that was just 50,000-chips ahead of Illan Kandiah, who will also carry a big stack into Day 2 after winning a massive cooler in the later levels.
The entire group of 19 will return Sunday to play down to a final table, and they will be joined by any and all survivors from tomorrow's Day 1b.
PokerNews will be back with coverage of tomorrow's flight beginning at 11 a.m. local time. Hasta mañana.
As usual, the details are sketchy as to how Leo Kaplin accumulated the chips, but what we can tell you is that there's 300,000 of them sitting in front of him right now. He's claiming a bunch of big pairs and a set of deuces, but other than that, we got nothing.
Master in the art of deception, Kaplin is apparently fooling everybody again tonight, showing down minimal hands and having it every time he's been forced to.
Heading into the last level of the night he'll be looking to put a big number in the bag to follow up on his second-place run in last weekend's massive $300 Rentry that opened the Seneca Fall Poker Classic.
Ajax isn't just a popular brand of bleach, it's a town in Canada where Illan Kandiah lives, and that's relevant because Kandiah has suddenly vaulted into the chip lead on over 300,000 in chips after a huge hand with one-time big stack Brian Jamesgaard.
Jamesgaard turned the into trip queens, and after a series of raises, pushed all in for heaps with huge kicker problems. Kandiah called with the to make it a 300,000-plus chip pot and when the dust settled, he was on top of the mountain with Jamesgaard out.
Kandiah is now the favorite to bag the lead heading into the night's last level.
Anne Jones used to be a favorite to bag big as well, but she just flopped a set of jacks against Ernie Guardarrah's aces. They ultimately got it in after trading raises for a while and Guardarrah hit an ace on the river.
Alex Visbisky ran kings into aces to fall back to the middle of the pack. Three outed for the rest a few minutes later and he's gone. I guess that means we're done talking about how he led flight one last year.
Alan Findlay is still the only one over 200,000 headed into Level 11, but Blake Napierala looms close by. Legends, both of them.
Plus, there's 'Big Daddy' Cameron Bartolotta coming up on the My Stack App with over 100,000 now. He's looking to try to put something big in the bag with a little of that My Stack App magic, having been there and done that so many times before.
Dietrich Kuhlmann and Mike "The Mayor" Rellinger are gone now after running into Matt Marcinkiewicz and his massive hipster ginger beard super powers.
Kuhlmann was only halfway through his Super Big Gulp when he got it in with a flush draw against Marcinkiewicz' flopped set of aces. Kuhlmann made the flush on the river, but the same card gave Marcinkiewicz a full house. Kuhlmann took the soda home with him.
Not too long after, it folded to Marcinkiewicz in the small blind and he jammed into Rellinger's ten-big-blind stack.
Rellinger woke up with kings and called, squealing like a giddy school girl on a snow day. Marcinkiewicz had fives and made a set to send Rellinger home with something new to whine about.
Anyone in the room who wants to rub the beard for luck is welcome to do so at the break.
West Seneca, NY's Dan Wagner just woke up...with two kings.
The truth is, the man who took down last year's Seneca Fall Poker Classic Main Event, booking a $64,882 score and getting his mug on the cover of CardPlayer Magazine, did just wake up. He hurried in and got here in time to register during the break, taking a seat next to good friend Chris Gras.
Already short, Gras shoved the for a little over 3,000 in Wagner's first hand and Wagner was the only caller with his two kings.
No aces or surprises on the board sent Gras to the rail early and helped Wagner get off to a late, but hot start.
Buffalo, NY's own Colin Phoenix is running hotter than a Death Wing at Duff's to start the day.
First he cracked aces with the turning trip nines. Then, he won an even bigger pot, hanging around until the river to make a straight to beat another foe's two pair.
He's got the Level 2 chip lead and a bottle of run good sauce larger and more flavorful than anyone else's right now.
It's Fall in Western New York and with the leaves changing colors and temperatures dropping outside, the action always heats up inside the Niagara Falls Poker Room at the Seneca Niagara Casino & Resort.
Today marks the start of the $1,000 buy-in 2017 Seneca Fall Poker Classic Main Event and if it's action you're looking for, this is the place to be.
Play will begin at 11 a.m. on Friday with the first of two starting flights for the $200,000 guaranteed event. However, this one is played for more than just cash and a sweet trophy. For the second year in a row, CardPlayer magazine has come on as a title sponsor of the Seneca Fall Poker Classic, so the Main Event winner will grace the cover of CardPlayer, one of the most popular magazines in poker.
The event will kick off and play out entirely inside the poker room this year. Players will start with 30,000 in chips with plans to play through 15 40-minute levels on Day 1. The levels increase in length as the tournament moves forward.
Registration and unlimited reentry is available through the first ten levels and the 45-minute dinner break that will take place after ten levels are through. Plus, there's another starting flight Saturday.
This event always attracts some of the area's top poker players and several from beyond it. In fact, last year saw a whopping 300 entries create a guarantee-smashing $264,810 prize pool. West Seneca, New York's Dan Wagner went from perennial bridesmaid to bride, taking down the 2016 Seneca Fall Poker Classic Main Event.
The top earning pro booked his first big win after final table appearances in the 2016 Western New York Poker Challenge and 2015 Summer Slam Main Events.
With multiple satellite winners already in, and more running up until the last minute, there should be a big field for this one as well.
Of course, PokerNews will be on hand from beginning to end, so sit back and enjoy our coverage of the 2017 Seneca Fall Poker Classic Main Event. It starts now.
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into trip queens, and after a series of raises, pushed all in for heaps with huge kicker problems. Kandiah called with the 
to make it a 300,000-plus chip pot and when the dust settled, he was on top of the mountain with Jamesgaard out.
for a little over 3,000 in Wagner's first hand and Wagner was the only caller with his two kings.
turning trip nines. Then, he won an even bigger pot, hanging around until the river to make a straight to beat another foe's two pair.
