That's a wrap on the Day 1 qualifying flights for Event #1: $200 No-Limit Hold'em $50,000 guarantee at the 2018 Western New York Poker Challenge. Day 1d gathered the largest field yet closing registration with 229 entries. After 14 30-minute levels, just 30 were left with chips to carry into Day 2.
Sitting atop of the counts for most of Day 1d, Chris Babula finished with the largest stack, bagging 302,700. Babula will return to action on Day 2 with the third best stack chasing overall chipleader Daniel Wagner with 325,000.
Tyler Dietz surged late in the day to end with the second-best stack of 248,500 while Andrew Streit (244,000), Blake Napierala (221,600), and Robert Falanga (184,300) round out the top five.
With all four flights combined, a total of 798 entries were accumulated creating a prize pool worth $128,877, smashing the guarantee by more than 150%. Day 2 will begin with 104 hopefuls provided nobody qualified through multiple flights.
Day 2 will get underway at noon local time on Sunday in the Seneca Niagara Falls Poker room and play down until a champion is crowned.
Cards hit the air for the fourth and final flight of Event #1 of the 2018 Western New York Poker Challenge kicks off this evening at the Seneca Niagra Resort & Casino. A total of 569 entries have gathered this far with a guarantee-smashing prize pool of $91,849 already up for grabs.
The first event of the series features a buy-in of $200 and a guaranteed prize pool of $50,000. Players had four shots to qualify for Day 2 with the survivors returning on Sunday to play down to a champion.
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.
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.
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