Macella Survives Day of Drama For Winter Open Main Event Day 1b Chip Lead
Justin Macella was on the wrong end of a royal flush and a two-outer on the river, yet he still played well enough and found enough fortune himself to earn the Day 1b chip lead of the $2,000 bestbet Winter Open Main Event.
Rollercoaster hands and dramatic suckouts were the themes throughout the day as many players found themselves on the bad end of long odds in big hands before their day was done.
In the end, 30 players truly survived to advance on to Sunday’s Day 2, where combined with those advancing from Friday’s opening flight, 48 now return, with 41 making the money.
The 397 total entries created a prizepool of $580,425, with a min-cash Sunday worth $3,577, while the eventual champion on Monday will receive $122,017 and the champion’s trophy.
Many players contended for the end-of-night chip lead before Macella solidified his spot atop the leaderboard, but he’ll be among a group of players entering Day 2 still more than 100,000 chips behind day 1a chip leader, Brett Feder and his total of 650,000.
Top Ten Combined Day 2 Chip Counts
| Place | First Name | Last Name | Hometown | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brett | Feder | Jacksonville, FL | 650,000 | 162 |
| 2 | Justin | Macella | McRae, GA | 496,000 | 124 |
| 3 | Rodney | Turvin | Cairo, GA | 457,000 | 114 |
| 4 | Maxwell | Young | Portland, OR | 444,000 | 111 |
| 5 | Joshua | Palmer | Boone, NC | 369,000 | 92 |
| 6 | David | Tuthill | St. Petersburg, FL | 324,000 | 81 |
| 7 | Brian | Schaedlich | Ponte Vedra, FL | 324,000 | 81 |
| 8 | Derek | Sacoff | Jacksonville, FL | 323,000 | 81 |
| 9 | Toby | Boas | Sylva, NC | 316,000 | 79 |
| 10 | Adam | Wells | Tallahassee, FL | 311,000 | 77 |
What a Day!
It didn’t take long for the fireworks to begin, as on the second level of the day, Thomas Carroll was the beneficiary of a dealer error where an extra card was burned, with the turn being replaced and becoming the river burn card, and the correct turn card then becoming one of the five outs he needed to survive. Carroll would go on to make it on to Day 2.
George Zinaty ran his kings into aces on the same level, but flopped a king to win a big pot, and he too would advance to play for the money on Sunday.
As mentioned earlier, Macella was on the wrong end of a royal flush that kept Mark Goulding’s tournament alive. Goulding went on from there to bag the sixth biggest stack of the day with 307,000.
Macella was later the victim of a two-outer against Fred Paradis that cost him more than a quarter of his stack, but he rebuilt quickly, then locked up his chip lead with a big hand against Cody Durden late in the day.
Also among the 30 players advancing from Saturday’s flight were Kelley Slay (222,000), Ron Germany (207,000), David Dibernardi (180,000), and Hunter Cichy (43,000).
Some of those who couldn’t make it through to Day 2 included Jeffrey Trudeau, Edward Mroczkowski, Michael Jagroo, Kelly Slay, and Edward Sebesta.
The Plan for Day 2
Those final 48 will return to the bestbet Jacksonville poker room at noon local time, where just six eliminations will be needed to reach the money. From there, they will continue on until just eight players remain. That eight-handed final table will resume Monday at 4 p.m. under the lights of the bestbetLIVE streaming stage.
Play resumes Sunday with 13 minutes remaining in level 14 at blinds of 2,000/4,000/4,000, the point where play was stopped on Day 1a. Levels extend to 60 minutes in length for the remainder of the tournament, with breaks every two levels, and a 30-minute dinner break scheduled after level 20.
Keep your browser locked on PokerNews as our live reporting coverage continues Sunday, and right up until a champion is crowned on Monday.