Gregory Brown Leads 98 Survivors after First Flight of $1,100 Arizona State Championship

The first of four starting flights is in the books here at Talking Stick Resort for the 2026 Arizona State Championship of Poker. The celebratory 20th Anniversary of the event kicked off with a bang as a total of 816 entries were tallied today--nearly 100 more than last year's Day 1a, and contributing $816,000 to the prize pool.

Once the dust settled, just 98 players put chips into a bag and have advanced to Monday's Day 2. However, three more opportunities await for others to join them.

Leading the way from Day 1a was Gregory Brown who went on a heater at the end of the night on his way to a bag of 1,354,000. Brown is looking to continue his lucrative year after a second-place finish in a WPT Venetian for $270,000, along with a 62nd-place finish in the WSOP Main Event for $150,000.

WSOP Bracelet winner Nicholas Julia (1,138,000) also eclipsed a million, as he showed today that he can get it done in the two-card streets along with his preferred mixed games. Rounding out the podium in third is Vinny Tran (1,050,000), who was the only other player with seven figures.

End of Day 1a Top Ten Chip Counts

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Count
1	Gregory Brown	United States	1,354,000
2	Nicholas Julia	United States	1,138,000
3	Vinny Tran	United States	1,050,000
4	Rashawn Curry	United States	928,000
5	Joshua Anspach	United States	917,000
6	Sara Dehghani	United States	815,000
7	Noah Perry	United States	773,000
8	Chris Nelson (CA)	United States	764,000
9	Mark Renslow	United States	744,000
10	Esther Riordan	United States	654,000

Others to find bags include Jeremy Brown (578,000), Steven Jones (525,000), Thomas Zanot (443,000), defending champion Brandon Mitchell (390,000), Brett Murray (278,000), Chad Lipton (181,000), John Riordan (120,000), and Tyler Hancock (33,000).

There were well over 400 players seated for the first shuffle as the excitement in the air was palpable. There was action all over the room from the onset, and the field reached 816 entries by the time registration closed at 5 p.m.

Many of the best players in the Arizona area and beyond tried their luck today, but not everyone was fortunate enough to find a bag. Among those who could not reach the finish line today include two-time champion Ryan Stiner, Jared Jaffee, Talking Stick MSPT Champion June Kim, two-time bracelet winners Mike Wattel and Lawrence Brandt, Arizona regulars Colton Blomberg and Jonah Labranche, Tiffany Michelle, and UFC Champion Sean O'Malley.