2014 PPC Aruba World Championship Day 1b: Mark Kroon Leads; Guarantee Smashed
The 2014 PPC Aruba World Championship $2,200 Main Event surpassed the $200,000 guarantee, and with 42 entries on Day 1b brought the total field size to 138. When play ended after 12 levels of play, 17 remained, and that means 52 have advanced to Day 2 on Monday.
It was veteran poker pro and PPC Pro Mark Kroon who ended with the most chips on Day 1b with 128,000. Kroon played next to his mother, Marilyn Guess, for most of the day, and Guess herself would end with a very respectable stack of 74,200. Kroon had several big hands, and two big ones came against Arun Chugani. In the first, Kroon called a large river bet by Chugani with fourth pair. He would later eliminate Chugani with the A♠K♦ against Chugani's A♣J♥.
Sitting not far behind Kroon was John Ott, who ended the day with 114,500 in chips, and his day included flopping a royal flush. Ott is sitting in second place on the PPC Player of the Year leaderboard. With a deep run, he will have an excellent shot at taking down that title. The person in first on the leaderboard, Parry Shaw, also survived the day with 57,300 in chips.
Other notables to advance to Day 2 included Ryan Franklin (77,500), Chris Bolek (51,800), Josh Kay (75,400), Stuart Prieto (12,200), and Todd Boghosian (71,900). Boghosian crippled the popular Ronnie Bardah with aces against kings, and Bardah would hit the rail soon after. Marc Lowe, Marcia Kuntz, Sam Medina, and Danny Lobato also did not survive.
Play will resume on Monday at 1 p.m. local time. Stay tuned to PokerNews as the field plays down to the final table on the way to determining the 2014 PPC Aruba World Champion.
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