Jason Lee Leads 16 Players After Day 1a of the $1,500 Main Event at bestbet's Summer Heater Poker Series
The opening flight of the $1,500 Main Event at bestbet Jacksonville's Summer Heater Poker Series has come to an end and Jason Lee is the chip leader after just over 14 levels of play.
Lee leads a field of 16 surviving players that will return on Sunday for the Day 2 finale of the flagship event in the popular Summer Series. The first of two flights drew 127 players and generated a prize pool of $168,910. A larger field is expected for Day 1b on Friday at 12 p.m.
$1,500 Main Event Day 1a Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Name | Chip Count | Day 2 Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jason Lee | 483,000 | 121 |
| 2 | Chanthou Chau | 465,500 | 116 |
| 3 | Tai Lee | 360,500 | 90 |
| 4 | Ryan Hogan | 275,000 | 69 |
| 5 | Levi Carden | 274,500 | 69 |
| 6 | Jared Reinstein | 185,000 | 46 |
| 7 | Thomas Carroll | 149,000 | 37 |
| 8 | Lucas Tae | 130,000 | 33 |
| 9 | Raminder Singh | 120,000 | 30 |
| 10 | Toni Fiorenza | 117,500 | 29 |
Day 1a Action
Lee has the lead after he picked up quads to bust his opponent’s full house and send the tournament to the stone bubble. He’s followed closely by Chanthou Chau, who dominated the chip counts over the final levels until Lee caught up in the closing hands.
In third on the leaderboard is Tai Lee, who jumped up the chip counts as he busted Tyler Payne to end the night and put all of the remaining 16 players into the money. Ryan Hogan and Levi Carden round out the top five chip counts.
Prior to the fireworks that ended the night, Chau and Lee set the pace at the top of the leaderboard throughout most of the day. Chau’s momentum started just after dinner, when he looked up Thomas Carroll with a flush and took down a big pot.
Carroll bounced back and bagged 149,000, all while clashing with several of the players that will move on to Day 2. Raminder Singh was one such player, and he managed to make what will be considered one of the best folds of the tournament when he ditched his pocket jacks before the flop in the face of an all-in bet from Carroll’s pocket aces.
Toni Fiorenza also exchanged volleys with Carroll throughout the later stages of the evening. In one such hand, Fiorenza flopped a straight and Carroll called her river bet with a smaller one. She will return on Sunday with an opportunity to have a big week after her fourth-place finish in Event #1: $400 NLH.
Other players returning for Day 2 include Jared Reinstein, Lucas Tae, Sean Conklin, and William Davis.
Among those not returning for Day 2 are David “Moose” Hughes, Nick Raio, and Yuval Bronshtein. Bronshtein was patient throughout the day, and his spot finally came with pocket sevens, but he ran into the queens of Reinstein and he hit the rail in the later part of the evening.
Play ended with 16:00 on the clock in Level 14 with blinds at 2,000/4,000/4,000, and players will return in that level on Sunday unless Day 1b ends earlier. Day 1b will kickoff on Friday at 12 p.m. local time, and players will once again play down to 12.5% of the field. All surviving players from both flights will come back on Sunday at 12 p.m for the finale with a final table to be broadcast on bestbetLIVE.
Be sure to keep it with the PokerNews team all weekend long for live updates from the floor of the $1,500 Main Event at bestbet Jacksonville’s Summer Heater Poker Series.