Blake Whittington Leads Final 64 in First Mystery Bounty
The final day of Event 5: $600 Mystery Bounty $300,000 Guaranteed is about to begin here at The Lodge Poker Club in Round Rock, Texas. A total of 528 registrants were gathered over the Day 1 flights and just 64 are left now to battle it out on Day 2. Each player will now receive a bounty chip whenever they knock out a player from the field that will be worth a minimum of $400 with a chance of landing up to $40,000.
Starting the day atop the leaderboard is Blake Whittington who bagged a monstrous 790,000 (198) from the Day 1c flight after making a correct read versus Joshua Alverez in the last few hands of the night. Closest behind Whittington is Zachary Vuong who found max-value with kings against Richard Stevens in Day 1d to catapult his stack, and will be entering Day 2 with 555,000 (139 bb). Also from the last flight of the event is Awonke Phewa who bagged 543,000 (136 bb) which is good for third on the leaderboard. Rounding out the top five stacks are Kaleb Dunn (481,000) and Nathan Jessen (459,000)/
Top 10 Stacks on Day 2
| Rank | Player | Hometown | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Blake Whittington | Cleveland, TN | 790,000 | 198 |
| 2 | Zachary Vuong | Houston, TX | 555,000 | 139 |
| 3 | Awonke Phewa | Chicago, IL | 543,000 | 136 |
| 4 | Kaleb Dunn | Kansas City, MO | 481,000 | 120 |
| 5 | Nathan Jessen | Blair, NE | 459,000 | 115 |
| 6 | Martin Ostriker | Thornhill, ON | 455,000 | 114 |
| 7 | Michael Zojoff | New York, NY | 440,000 | 110 |
| 8 | Michael Alvarez | Oakview, CA | 436,000 | 109 |
| 9 | Fausto Sauco | Las Vegas, NV | 395,000 | 99 |
| 10 | Mahesh Rathi | Austin, TX | 386,000 | 97 |
The players will return to blinds of 2,000/4,000 with a 4,000 ante on Day 2 and blinds will be bumped up to 40-minutes in length. There will be a 15-minute break after every three levels and a 60-minute dinner break after nine levels. All 64 runners are now guaranteed at least a min-cash with the shot at some mystery bounties every time they eliminate an opponent. The seating chart and payouts will be posted shortly.
The PokerNews live will reporting team will be bringing all of the updates right up until a champion is crowned, so stay tuned.
. From the small blind, Eric Salazar led for 28,000. It was a blind on blind battle as Mahesh Rathi was in the big blind and called.
. Salazar checked. Rathi bet 55,000 into a pot of about 100,000. Salazar thought for close a minute before calling.
for the straight and collected the sizable pot as Salazar flung his cards into the muck in frustration.
, Nathan Hays checked and Ahir Chatterjee bet 20,000 into a pot that was around 40,000. Chris Staats moved all in, totaling 129,000, and Hays check-shoved over the top for a total of 203,000.
for two pair and Hays showed 
for a pair of johnnies. The 
river cemented it for Staats who pulled in more than a double. Hays was left short and was seen walking to the payout desk just a few hands later.
board came down and Dunn won the hand with his boat, doubling up through Alvarez just moments before the break.
and Jaimes was still in the lead. A 
turn brought some more outs for Jozoff. The river hit one of his outs when a 
on the flop and he was still leading the way. 
turn and 
and Campbell was in trouble. An 
turn sealed it for Saucedo who then had Campbell drawing dead to the 
river card.
flop. Ferro found his 435,000 stack head into the pot and Jozoff called the jam.
to give Noori and unneeded flush.
.