Griffin Benger Bags Top Stack on Day 1 of Event #31: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em 6-Handed
Day 1 of Event #31: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Handed is in the books after 10 levels of play. This event attracted a field of 754 poker enthusiasts filtering into six-packs, but only 140 of them were able to find a bag for Day 2.
The Amazon room was packed with notables and at the end of the day, it was Griffin Benger who bagged the chip lead with an impressive stack of 427,500, the only stack above the 400,000 mark. Benger has over $1,500,000 in earnings at the WSOP including a seventh-place finish in the 2016 WSOP Main Event. He will be looking to make a big score in his first cash of the summer. Benger was sitting near the top of the leaderboard during most of the day. He took over the chip lead when he made quad deuces during the last level of the night and managed to get paid.
Other big stacks include Manig Loeser (245,000), Onur Unsal (258000), and Michael Tureniec (230,000). Loeser already has three cashes this summer including a six-figure score after getting 10th in Event #5: High Roller - $50,000 No-Limit Hold'em for the 50th Annual. Tureniec already has a bracelet and will try to add another one to his collection.
Other notables who made it through include 2018 WSOP Main Event Runner-Up Tony Miles with a decent stack of 208,000, as well as six-time bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu (79,500), Anthony Spinella (97,500), Adrian Mateos (98,500), Ricky Guan (94,500), Daniell Ott (94,000), Victor Choupeaux (121,500), Andre Akkari (60,500), Bas de Laat (58,500), and Sylvain Loosli (46,000).
The top 114 spots will get a share of the $2,035,800 prize pool with a min-cash being worth $4,482. However, everyone will have their eyes on the top prize of $414,766 and the prestigious WSOP gold bracelet.
Some other big names who took a shot at more glory through this event but weren't able to make it another day include Jason Somerville, Craig Varnell, Jared Jaffee, Betrand Grospellier, Ana Marquez, Maria Ho, Jordan Young, Matt Berkey, Alex Foxen, Chino Rheem, Rainer Kempe, and Daniel Ott.
The remaining players will return to the Amazon room on Thursday, June 13th at 2 p.m. local time to continue to battle it out. Action resumes at Level 11, which features a small blind of 1,000, big blind of 2,000, and a 2,000 ante.
flop and getting a fold from the big blind.
and Negreanu backdoored a flush to double up.
, and Joe McKeehen called from the big blind. The turn came the 
, McKeehen checked and Pecheux checked back. McKeehen showed down the 
for the king-high flush, and Pecheux mucked his 
