Will Givens Bags Lead Day 1b of the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS North America
It was another long day of poker at the Playground Poker Club for Day 1b of the CA$10,000 Main Event in the 2019 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS North America. After a hard-fought 10 levels, just 107 players survived to move on to Thursday's Day 2. The remaining 258 players will gather in the same for the first time when the action resumes.
Leading the way among those survivors is American poker pro Will Givens. He will head into Day 2 with 6,285,000 chips, far and away the chip leader from Day 1b. Things got started in the right direction for Givens when he made aces up against Elliot Smith just before the dinner break. Givens nearly doubled his stack and he kept the momentum rolling into the latter stages of the day.
With over $2 million in career tournament winnings, Givens will be looking to add another trophy to his collection along with a nice payday. Some other big names near the top of the leaderboard at the end of the day include Canadians Jonathan Dwek (4,330,000) and Michael Farrow (4,315,000) along with Spanish high-roller Sergio Aido (4,195,000).
Aido is recently coming off a Super High Roller win at EPT Monte Carlo and is showing no signs of slowing down. This is Aido's second bullet for the tournament but he got things started right today when he jumped out to an early chip lead. Forced to move tables a couple of times, Aido eventually found himself on the same table as other notable names such as Sam Greenwood, Orpen Kisacikoglu, and Paul Michaelis. One of the largest pots of the day came when Aido and Michaelis both flopped a pair of aces but Aido's king-kicker eliminated Michaelis who had a queen-kicker.
After a larger than expected field turned out for Day 1a, today was a bit slower since 151 players had already booked their spot in Day 2. When late registration closed after four levels, there were a total of 217 entries for the day. That brought the total number of entries to 521 for this event, surpassing the CA$5,000,000 guaranteed prize pool.
The day turned out much better than the previous one for the partypoker team members in the field. Ludovic Geilich (3,855,000), Anatoly Filatov (2,900,000), Bertrand Grospellier (2,655,000), Kristen Bicknell (1,865,000), and Mike Sexton (1,200,000) all made it through the day unscathed. Joni Jouhkimainen, Philipp Gruissem, and Jeff Gross were among those that were eliminated.
A few other players to keep an eye on include Antonio Esfandiari who quietly went about his business to bag an impressive 3,255,000 chips. Esfandiari hasn't played much poker since last year's World Series of Poker but is looking to get back into the swing of things before the summer series. Ari Engel (3,235,000) is always dangerous when playing in his home country and Kisacikoglu also bagged over three million chips with 3,125,000.
Sandy Lam Heads Into Day 2 with the Chip Lead
The opening flight of the 2019 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS North America Main Event drew to an end on Tuesday, May 21 after 10 levels of play. A total of 151 players have made their way to Day 2 and it was Sandy Lam bagging up the Day 1a chip lead with an impressive stack of 6,840,000 chips. This surpasses the 6,285,000 bagged by Givens on Day 1b to give her the chip lead heading into Thursday's Day 2.
While Lam is a recreational poker player hailing from the United States, she managed to find her way through one of the toughest fields in this CA$10,000 Main Event. Lam has just one recorded cash in her poker career of under $1,000. Lam is looking to change that this week with at least a five-figure score and she is well on her way to accomplishing that feat.
A couple of notable names are sitting within striking distance of Lam including German high-roller Manig Loeser. Coming off a recent victory worth over $670,000, Loeser bagged up 6,620,000 chips and is looking to keep the momentum rolling in Montreal. Armin Rezaei (5,790,000), Jonathan Concepcion (5,320,000), and Georgiy Filippovich (5,305,000) round out the top five chip counts.
The day got started with around 150 players in their seats but that number continued to escalate quickly through the four levels of late registration. With no re-entry option available on the same day, the action started off rather slow. When registration closed after four levels, there were a total of 304 entries, surpassing the halfway mark of the CA$5,000,000 guaranteed prize pool.
Some of the big names to be eliminated throughout the day include Patrick Serda, Sergio Aido, Scott Seiver, Ema Zajmovic, Alex Lynskey, Jeff Gross, Taylor Black, Anatoly Filatov, Ludovic Geilich, and Darryll Fish.
None of the partypoker team members were able to find a bag, however, some of the online qualifiers found better success. Leo Liberal (1,790,000), Daniel Dubeau (730,000), Matthew Urban (255,000), and Samuel Gagnon (235,000) will all return for Day 2 with a shot at turning their rags into riches.
The action will resume on Thursday, May 23 at 12 p.m. EST with the blinds resuming at 15,000/30,000 and a 30,000 big blind ante. Another ten 60-minute levels are on the schedule and the players are not expected to reach the money until early on Day 3. Continue to follow along with the PokerNews live reporting team for all of the action throughout the entire event.
