Winter Poker Open Main Event $1,650 Buy-In, $500,000 Guaranteed Level 17: 2,500/5,000/500 | Payouts Players Remaining: 79/671
Play has moved along on Day 2 and the clock shows only 79 players remaining. Only the top 63 finish in the money meaning the tournament is less than two tables away from a pay day.
Winter Poker Open Main Event $1,650 Buy-In, $500,000 Guaranteed Level 17: 2,500/5,000/500 | Payouts Players Remaining: 84/671
Farid Jattin began the day at the top of the counts while Juan Martinez sat third. Now, less than three levels into the day, the duo shares Table 8. Martinez began the restart hot, but recently doubled up Terri-Anne Crawford shipping a sizable pot her way. Jattin, meanwhile, has chipped up a bit and holds over 600,000.
Other notables at Table 8 include Austin Buchanan and Rob Manjura, both with chips.
Winter Poker Open Main Event $1,650 Buy-In, $500,000 Guaranteed Level 16: 2,000/4,000/500 | Payouts Players Remaining: 96/671
There was three-way action on a board. Brandon Byars was all-in from the small blind for about 25,000. Anthony Astarita was in early position and action was on him. He folded sending it around to Brandon Tjhang on the button. Tjhang called and the hands were up.
Tjhang: for top pair Byars: for a pair of eights
Turn and river:
Byars was eliminated as the clock dipped below 100 players remaining.
Winter Poker Open Main Event $1,650 Buy-In, $500,000 Guaranteed Level 16: 2,000/4,000/500 | Payouts Players Remaining: 102/671
Charlemagne Benjamin was eliminated by Satish Surapaneni moments ago in an all-in preflop confrontation.
Benjamin (small blind): Surapaneni (big blind):
Runout:
Benjamin flopped a king, but the board ran out with four diamonds. Surapaneni claimed the and his flush was good. Benjamin surrendered the last of his 39,000 chips and hit the rail early on Day 2.
Satish Surapaneni – 450,000 Charlemagne Benjamin – Eliminated
Winter Poker Open Main Event $1,650 Buy-In, $500,000 Guaranteed Level 16: 2,000/4,000/500 | Payouts Players Remaining: 112/671
We approached the tabled to find the board dealt and the action complete. Witold Wasik was an all-in player while Joey Wideman was on the wrong end of a double-up.
Board:
Wasik: for top set Wideman: for a pair of jacks
Wideman shipped a double across the table to Wasik. The hand left Wideman, who started Day 2 with a top 10 stack, with only 32,000.
Winter Poker Open Main Event $1,650 Buy-In, $500,000 Guaranteed Level 15: 1,500/3,000/500 | Payouts Players Remaining: 122/671
It’s been a quick exit to start Day 2 with nearly three tables breaking since cards when in the air less than 45 minutes ago. Among the early exits were John Dolan and Bill McKown.
Winter Poker Open Main Event $1,650 Buy-In, $500,000 Guaranteed Level 15: 1,500/3,000/500 | Payouts Players Remaining: 131/671
Juan Martinez built his holdings up to over 500,000 to take the chip lead from Farid Jattin early. Shortly after, we approached Martinez’s table to find him in the cutoff with 30,000 in front of him and Haim Toorgeman on the button with an all-in bet of 162,000 in front of him. Martinez debated for a bit before folding queens face up. Toorgeman flashed aces and the pair shared a laugh.
“That’s the shit that’s wins championships right there,” Martinez said of his laydown.
Winter Poker Open Main Event $1,650 Buy-In, $500,000 Guaranteed Level 15: 1,500/3,000/500 | Payouts Players Remaining: 146/671
From 671 starting entries, the Winter Poker Open Main Event is down to 146 and on to Day 2. The super-sized field generated a prize pool that eclipsed the $1,000,000 mark before topping out at $1,006,500. Just the top 63 finish in the money and it will be a grind to get there as the field needs to cut in half and then some.
Leading the action to start Day 2 is Flight B’s Farid Jattin. Jattin, an international pro, beat up his start day and enjoys a stack of 435,500 to start today. He’s the only player over 400,000 as Justin Harvel sits second with 381,000 and Juan Martinez third with 377,500.
Others near the top include Tom Nguyen (364,000), Seminole Hard Rock Poker team member Mike Laake (253,500) and Sean Shah (232,000).