With respect, honor and gratitude, we thank all Veterans for their service on this day.
Inside the Niagara Falls Poker Room at the Seneca Niagara Casino & Resort we also play the second and final starting flight for the $1,000 buy-in $200,000 guaranteed 2017 Seneca Fall Poker Classic Main Event, because we can. The freedom to do so having been afforded to us by the efforts of so many.
Play will begin at 11 a.m. on Saturday and let's not forget 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 all of poker.
The event will kick off and play out entirely inside the poker room. 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. After drawing 95 entries through that period on Day 1a Friday, there's little doubt the guarantee will be met and more.
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. It was a record field for a Seneca Niagara Main Event and West Seneca and New York's Dan Wagner got the monkey off his back by taking it down.
In fact, 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. He is expected to return topday to defend that title.
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. Any and all susrvivors will join the 19 from Friday in playing for the big money and the glory Sunday.
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.
Tim Glab is off to try to satellite in for a second time today after getting it in good and running into Peter Raimondi and his My Stack App run good.
Players can use the My Stack App to update their own chip counts directly into the PokerNews Live Reporting blog using their iPhone or Android device. Then the magic happens. My Stack App users suddenly find the uncanny ability to run hotter than an Anchor Bar chicken wing.
The following is just one of many examples.
Raimondi made it 750 on the button. Glab flatted and Jason Clark joined them going three-ways to a flop with two spades. It checked to Raimondi and he continued for 1,200. Both players called.
The turned and it checked to Raimondi again. He bet 3,800, Glab jammed all in for 24,500 and Clark tank-folded.
Raimondi called with the flush draw, and even though Glab was already there holding the straight, the river came up all Raimondo making him a flush and proving the My Stack App run good is real.
Is this the man who won the 2016 Seneca Fall Poker Classic Main Event?
Is this the man whose face graced the cover of CardPlayer Magazine?
Is this the man who wrecked the buffet at the Harrow club this morning?
Yes, it is. It's 'Everybody's All American' Dan Wagner. The perennial favorite. The West Seneca widow maker.
After sleeping it off for the first few levels, Mr. Wagner finally turned up to defend his Seneca Fall Classic Main Event title and the crowd went wild. He's hoping to give them something more to cheer for after punting off the first title defense bullet Friday.
Can he make the magic happen again? Stay tuned to the PokerNews Live Reporting blog to find out.
Toronto, Canada's Colin Padgett, who finished 11th to bubble the final table of this event last year, just doubled up to over 100,000 in dramatic fashion.
He limped in under the gun with two queens. Ray Larouech limped two aces right behind him, and after two other callers came along for the ride, the player in the big blind made it 6,500.
Padgett had about 55,000 total and decided to jam it in before Ray LaRouech jumped out of his chair, screamed out "Yes," and slammed his aces on the felt with three players to act. They all folded, putting LaRouech at risk.
The early celebration cost LaRoueche some Karma points and inevitably a queen flopped. LaRouche had a gutshot, but whiffed, and as he says goodbye, Padgett heads into the dinner break with a stack.
That dinner break starts now with 84 left in it and Paul McLean still ahead of them all. Play will resume at around 7 p.m. local time. Registration and reentry is still open until then.
We said goodbye to Sandra Boyle, who ran the bottom end of a straight into Tommy Tomasello's top end for piles of chips.
Tomasello said hello to the chip lead on 270,000.
In the meantime, Daniel Lopez looked down at aces after the player in Seat 5 raised to 4,000. Lopez made it 15,000 and Seat 5 jammed 90,000. Lopez called and dragged the easiest 200,000-chip pot he'll ever see with aces versus ace-king.
Plus, over on table four, Bradley Girdler and Hayden Glassman have chipped away at chip leaders Paul McLean and Joe Shaw, leaving Lopez the closest to Tomasello right now.
The second and final starting flight for the 2017 Seneca Fall Poker Classic Main Event drew 176 entries inside the Niagara Falls Poker Room at the Seneca Niagara Casino & Resort Saturday.
That made for a total of 271 over the two flights, creating a $239,212 prize pool. The top 27 finishers will all get paid with a $58,608 top prize awaiting to the winner, and over $10,000 for anyone that can make the top six.
After 15 levels of play in the second starting flight, just 38 players survived. Add them to the 19 from the first flight and a total of 57 are going through to Sunday to fight for a spot at the final table.
Paul McLean will take the overall lead into Sunday's Day 2 on a massive heap of 468,000 in chips. It was simply a day where he always seemed to have the better pair, the bigger straight or the higher flush. Not to mention so many full houses he could build a subdivision full of them. He even made a Royal Flush in the last few hands of the night to put a cherry on the cake that was his day.
Tomorrow is another day, however. Anything can happen and PokerNews will be on hand for it all. Play will resume at 11 a.m. local time in Niagara Falls. Be sure to click through to see how it all shakes down in the 2017 Seneca Fall Poker Classic Main Event.
![[user127999]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
flop with two spades. It checked to Raimondi and he continued for 1,200. Both players called.
turned and it checked to Raimondi again. He bet 3,800, Glab jammed all in for 24,500 and Clark tank-folded.
flush draw, and even though Glab was already there holding the 
straight, the 
river came up all Raimondo making him a flush and proving the My Stack App run good is real.
