Welcome back to PokerNews' continuing coverage of the 2017 Western New York Poker Challenge from the Niagara Falls Poker Room inside the Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino.
Tonight we present a very special tournament that is a part of both the 2017 WNYPC schedule and a year-round promotion from Seneca Poker.
It's the $160 buy-in No Limit Hold'em First Wednesday of the Month event. This special promotional event runs on the first Wednesday of the month throughout the calendar year as the name implies. All final table participants from every event are invited to a Championship Event January 14, 2018 with an estimated prize pool of $20,000. This money is made up of 10 percent of the prize pool collected throughout all First Wednesday events, plus a nominal $10 entry fee.
Should participants make more than one final table throughout the year, they get 1,000 tournament chips added to their stack in the final for each additional one.
Tonight the structure is the same as all First Wednesday events, except there is also a 2017 WNYPC title and trophy on the line. Players get 10,000-chip starting stacks and the levels are 20 minutes in length. Registration and reentry is only available for the first three levels.
Because of the popular ongoing promotion, this is expected to be one of the busiest events of the 2017 WNYPC.
Get your popcorn popping, PokerNews' coverage of Event #6 on the 2017 WNYPC schedule - The $160 buy-in No Limit Hold'em First Wednesday of the Month event - will begin at 7 p.m. local time.
The 2017 Western New York Poker Challenge First Wednesday of the Month event was a big one.
It drew a whopping 198 entries creating a $23,166 that paid the top 21 tonight. It also added another $2,457 to the January 2018 Championship Event prizepool.
In the end, a deal was struck nine-handed after the hour got late and the stacks shallow. Each player earned $2,000.
They saved $1,000 and the trophy for first, but after seven of them busted in quick succession, Nick Zinter and Chris Damik chopped that heads-up. Then, just before 4 a.m. local time they flipped until Zinter had all the chips, title and trophy.
It's worth noting Zinter was among the shortest stacks on the money bubble and somehow hung on, not just to cash, but to run it up and make the final table. Even at the final table of ten, where all the players earned seats the Championship event, Zinter got short and came back again. He simply refused to lose, and in the end, he didn't.
Position
Player
Prize
1
Nick Zinter
$2,500
2
Chris Damik
$2,500
3
Don Orr
$2,000
4
Jarrod Brannigan
$2,000
5
Russ Hall
$2,000
6
James Miller
$2,000
7
Bill Schuster
$2,000
8
Todd Saffron
$2,000
9
Budwey Salhab
$2,000
PokerNews' coverage of the 2017 WNYPC Continues Thursday with Event #7 $300 PLO, which starts at 11 a.m. local time