After doubling up minutes earlier with pocket kings, Nick Nardello would find himself facing that same hand while holding . His opponent was Song O and Nardello was slightly covered and at risk.
The flop came to keep O in the lead. The turn was the and only an ace on the river would keep Nardello in the tournament. The river paired him, but it was the , and that would be the end of Nardello's day. O moved to 115,000 in chips after the hand.
Evan Panesis has been on a bit of a heater of late. He recently eliminated a player with when he moved all in on a flop and was trailing his opponent's . The turn was the and the river was the to give Panesis the pot and leading his eliminated opponent to mutter "oh, that hurt."
The very next hand in a blind-vs-blind confrontation with Patrick Panado, Panesis would flop trip sevens with on a flop and extract value from the former chip leader who held . Those two pots moved Panesis up to 200,000 in chips and Panado slipped to 135,000.
There are 13 players remaining meaning two more and play will conclude for the day.
Friday night was no deterring factor for poker players in the Tampa, Florida area as they came out for the 2014 PPC North America Championship at Tampa Downs to take their shot at part of the $200,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool. A total of 70 entrants took part bringing the total for the day to 181. When play concluded early Saturday morning, 11 were left standing bringing the number of survivors for the first two flights to 28.
Evan Panesis rode a late surge to end with the Day 1b chip lead with 235,300 in chips. This puts him second overall for the tournament thus far behind only Arri Stone and his 250,100 stack. Song O finished with the second biggest stack with 204,800 in chips and it would be Gregg Fund rounding out the top three with 193,500.
Others that will move on to final day play on Sunday included Patrick Panado (100,700), Alexi Hernandez (119,200), Anh Lu (159,400), and Michael Mattingly (104,800). Players that will have to return later today in an effort to make the final day of play included the likes of Alex Outhred, Anthony Brammer, Nick Nardello, and Lucinda Martinez.
This concludes our coverage of Day 1b. Make sure to follow along with PokerNews later today as we cover Day's 1c and 1d to see who comes back on Sunday.