$50,000 Guarantee Already Smashed as Day 1c Set for 10 AM

The first two flights of Event #1 of the 2018 Western New York Poker Challenge at the Seneca Niagra Resort & Casino were completed on Friday with two more flights today, this first of which gets underway at 10 AM local time.

Day 1a began Friday morning attracting a total of 146 entries. Just 22 players survived with Daniel Wagner setting the early mark, bagging a healthy chip lead of 325,000. Tim Campbell capped off a sizeable Day 1b leading 25 hopefuls after a field of 204 entries were gathered. Campbell ended Day 1b with a stack of 304,300.

The first event of the series features a buy-in of $200 and a guaranteed prize pool of $50,000. With 350 total entries already, the prize pool has been smashed currently sitting at $56,525.

The Saturday Day 1c and 1d flights are expected to be even larger. The prize pool should easily end up over $100,000 if that is the case. Pretty large value for a $200 buy-in.

Players will start with 15,000 in tournament chips and play either 14 30-minute blind levels or until the field gets down to 12% remaining. Registration will remain open until the end of the eighth level and players are permitted to play any of the Day 1 flights with only their top stack carrying forward to Day 2 on Sunday.

In 2017, Nick Walker claimed the victory in the kickoff event topping a field of 638 entries en route to a cash prize worth $17,404. Though, with a deal made between the final four players, Matt Heiligenthaler actually banked the top prize walking away with $23,000.

Here's a look at the full 2018 WNYPC schedule:

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