Day 1b Concludes: Hensley Hits 400k, Has Overall Chip Lead
Another exciting day of poker here at the Harrah's Cherokee Event Center has come to a close. The second of two Day 1 flights for the first ever WSOP Circuit Main Event at Cherokee played out on Saturday, and after 15 levels of poker Rick Hensley ended the night with the most chips of Day 1b players — and everyone from both Day 1 flights — finishing with an eye-popping stack of 401,400.
A total of 502 players entered today's flight, well over the 354 who played yesterday. The total of 856 entries marks the fourth-largest WSOP-C Main Event field in the 2012-13 season, and of course the $1,284,000 prize pool represents a milestone not just here in North Carolina but throughout the region. The top 90 finishers will be cashing, with more than a quarter million dollars due the winner.
Those coming out today included a number of players taking a second shot after busting on Day 1a, with Josh Arieh, Christopher Kirkland, Kirk Shelmerdine, Yuval Bronshtein, and Ryan Riess among the unfortunate ones failing to survive either of the two days. Carter Phillips likewise busted a second time today, albeit in a memorable hand in which he correctly called an opponent's turn shove holding just king-high, but his opponent completed a draw to bust the Charlottean.
Meanwhile WSOP bracelet holder and North Carolinian Ken Aldridge also busted yesterday and came back today, but he fared much better to end the night with an above average stack of 137,900. Jeff "yellowsub86" Williams and Chris Bell also did better with their second entries to make it to tomorrow's Day 2.
Early in the day Jonathan Moseley and Darryl Harvey took turns battling for the early chip lead, then George Zinaty pushed past everyone to be the first player to 200,000. Joe Stark, Nilesh Choudhary, Chun Law, and Sean Small also moved up to take up spots at the top of the Day 1b leaderboard as the evening came to a close.
But it was Hensley who had the most profitable time of anyone post-dinner break, his momentum being ignited after winning a decent-sized pot against Kirk Shelmerdine to get him up over 100,000. He'd switch tables right after that hand, and the rest of the night enjoyed a huge rush of cards to move past 200k, then 300k, then finally bag that leading stack of 401,400.
A total of 118 entrants survived Day 1b altogether. They'll join the 83 who made it through Friday, meaning 201 players are still in the hunt for the first ever WSOP Circuit Harrah's Cherokee Main Event title.
Play resumes at noon local time tomorrow. Thanks for following our coverage thus far here on PokerNews, and be sure to come back on Sunday as we continue to find out together who will be the next WSOP-C Main Event champion.