Local hero Andy Spears is one of the most successful big-time tournament players in Western New York with over $1 million in career earnings.
Spears had what looked like a pretty big stack going into the break, just not coming out of it. Turned out it was all smoke and mirrors. One of the nicest guys you'll ever meet at the table, Spears spent the last level collecting up all the 25-denomination chips in advance of a color up. As a result, he had stacks on stacks of green, but they weren't really worth all that much.
Spears wasn't trying to fool anybody, he just wanted to make sure the color up went fast and smooth. Those greens are gone now and Spears' big stack went with it.
Speaking of fast and smooth, the legend that is Dan Wagner is now on 90,000 and climbing. He's two seats over from chip leader Jim Goertz and eyeing his chips with envy. He was recently seen salivating at the prospect of an obviously imminent confrontation.
In the meantime, it was a close shave for Andy Ranaletti as he almost got scalped getting it in with queens against Allison Schultz' aces. Ranaletti's run at the title of 2017 WNYPC Luckbox of the Series continued when he binked a queen to jump into contention.
Border-hopping interloper Cameron Bartolotta is putting together a little bit of a zero to hero story here today.
Down to 7,000 in chips he doubled with , then picked up pocket aces back-to-back, getting paid off in spades.
The former Canadian prison guard, a job akin to working maintenance at a country club anywhere else, already has a title and a trophy from a side event earlier in the 2017 WNYPC. Now he's now on track to get what he wished for at the start of the day, with the dinner break coming up at the end of this level.
@SNFPoker #WNYPC 1K Main today... I'm just here for the free food... loves me some 2K chicken
It was a family pot with everyone at the table paying 2,000 chips to see the flop.
A battle of local titans began when Blake Napierala led for 8,000 and DJ MacKinnon raised to 26,000. The rest of the table were scared off and when it folded back to Napierala, he shoved 70,000.
Mackinnon called with the bigger stack and Napierala was at risk with his two pair. Mackinnon had a set of deuces and it held, sending Napierala to bed without dinner.
Speaking of dinner, it now appears Mackinnon will take the chip lead into the 45-minute dinner break just minutes from now.
With ten levels of poker behind them, the players have been sent off on a 45-minute dinner break.
When play resumes at approximately 7:05 p.m. local time, the registration and reentry period for this second and final starting flight in the 2017 WNYPC Main Event will end.
Right now they are at 180 entries for the day, making 264 total. The $200,000 prizepool guarantee has been obliterated again. Some 96 are left in today's flight and will return from dinner looking to last five more levels and bag a big stack.
With registration and reentry now closed for this second flight, some of the numbers are in.
This second flight drew a whopping 183 entries, almost 100 more than Friday's 84. That makes it a grand total of 267 entries, outpacing the 244 this event drew last year.
Unofficially, the prizepool hit $235,681. We will have the full prizepool and payout details posted when they're in, but we can tell you Rick Block earned $52,768 taking the title last time around with a smaller field, so first-prize int he 2017 WNYPC Main Event should be even bigger than that.
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, then picked up pocket aces back-to-back, getting paid off in spades.
flop.
