Jeff Sluzinski Finished as Leader After Second Day of 2016 iNinja World Championship
After the first two starting flights drew a turnout of 420 on Monday, Tuesday's play at the iNinja World Championship got 720 more to push the two-day total to 1,140, smashing the guarantee of $250,000 with a prize pool of nearly $400,000. First place was set at $73,880, and the top 171 places will be paid.
At the end of a grueling Tuesday that saw 139 players book seats to Wednesday's Day 2, it was Jeff Sluzinski coming out with the best stack, bagging 346,000. Praveen Lokam (315,000), Jewook Oh (300,000), Bob Dixon (284,500), and Gary Bertram (262,000) also bagged hefty stacks.
Others making it through included Matt Reed (161,000), Aaron Johnson (137,000), Vlad Revniaga (132,000), Chris Tryba (78,500), Kou Vang (72,000), Leif Force (66,500), and DJ Mackinnon (60,500).
Reed, who made a deep run in the World Series of Poker Main Event in 2013, finishing 11th for $573,204, won a big pot late when he opened to 7,000 at 1,500/3,000/500. The small blind shoved for about 47,000 with the J♠10♠ and Reed snapped it off with the Q♠Q♦. A board of 7♣9♠7♥8♥ looked bad for Reed on the fourth street as his opponent made a straight, but the 7♦ river gave him a boat.
Some players firing and failing to bag stacks included Josh Reichard, Anna Khait, Michael Rocco, Lance Harris, Ralph Massey, and Colossus II winner Ben Keeline.
Day 2 play gets underway at 2 p.m. local time back at Planet Hollywood, and PokerNews will be on hand for coverage as the tournament plays down to a winner.
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