Last Hand Double Elimination Vaults Cutshall to Top as 59 Survive Day 1a
The opening flight of the World Series of Poker Circuit Choctaw Durant $1,700 Main Event has come to an end. A total of 392 entries entered the first flight but when the dust settled only 59 players advanced to Day 2, which will be held on Sunday, January 12th at noon.
At the end of the night, the race for who would end as chip leader was up in the air until the final hand when Wesley Cutshall scored a double elimination to send him to the top with 517,000.
Coming in a close second was WSOP bracelet winner Jonathan Hilton, who was stacking chips all day and bagged 500,000. Right behind Hilton was Brant Jolly (471,000) while Maury Solano came out fourth in chips (460,500). Four-time ring winner Marshall White (456,000) rounded out the top five.
Other notable players tp put chips in a bag at the end of Day 1a were Eric Bunch (403,000), Mike Linster (335,000), and all-time ring leader Maurice Hawkins (243,000).
The 59 surviving players from Day 1a will come back Sunday and join the survivors of Saturday's Day 1b flight in a combined field for Day 2.
Some of the notables playing on Day 1a but not making it through were Poker Hall of Famer T.J Cloutier, Melisa Singh, Daniel Lowery, Jared Jaffee and Aaron Massey.
All of those names are eligible to fire another bullet and enter the Day 1b flight as the WSOPC Choctaw Durant Main Event allows one re-entry per flight. The second starting flight will kick-off at noon on Saturday.
Follow along with the PokerNews live reporting team throughout the rest of the Main Event.