Benson Tang Leads Final 16 in Event #1: $600 Deepstack Kick Off; Brittney Barnes Near the Top
The second day of Event #1: $600 Deepstack Kick Off came to a slamming halt during the 28th level of play, with just 16 remaining of the original 318 that started Day 2. Bagging the largest stack by nights end was Benson Tang, who caught fire during the last level of the night.
Tang found himself take part in two key hands during the end of the night that resulted in him catapulting to a 9,950,000 stack, good enough to secure the chip lead. Jeffrey Hong unfortunately was on the losing end of one of those hands, running his kings into the aces of the end-of-day chip leader. Hong failed to spike a cowboy, losing a heavy portion of his stack and he failed to take any back, finishing at the bottom of the totem pole with 515,000.
A total of 2,504 entry slips were compiled for the tournament, accumulating a total prize pool of $1,311,596 which easily sailed by the one million guarantee that was offered. The top 250 finishers were guaranteed at least a min-cash of $1,102 with the eventual champion pulling in $228,142 for their first-place finish. The remaining 16 players returning for Day 3 have all secured at least $6,755 for their efforts with a top-nine finish pulling in $19,674.
Nipping at the heels of Tang in second place on the leaderboard is Frank Marasco with a healthy stack of 9,195,000. Marasco built a stack up throughout the day on a steady pace and seemed to always be adding chips after every round of play. The Morris Plains, New Jersey native was looking like the clear-cut favorite to bag the lead until the last few hands of the night where Tang took over. Marasco has over $135,000 in tournament earnings, with his biggest cash coming in the Borgata poker room for $78,710.
Rounding out the top three is Brittney Barnes with 8,935,000. Barnes swung for the fences during the early parts of the day and it paid off as she took down a few key pots early enough to claim the title of table captain. She applied an immense amount of pressure through the latter stages of the night, climbing at a steady pace until the last hand of the night where she vaulted near the top of the chip counts in a three-way pot that resulted in two eliminations. Boris Gandman moved all in from the button with ace-jack and the small blind player quickly followed suit shoving over the top for a little over a million. Barnes snap-called with queens and the rest is history as she sent two out during the last hand of the night, cementing a top-three stack for the final day of play.
The remaining 16 players will be returning Saturday at noon to battle it out until a winner is crowned, taking home the $228,142 first-place prize. Play will resume on level 28 with the blinds at 40,000/80,000 and a big blind ante of 80,000. Levels will be bumped up to 60-minutes in length and there will be a 15-minute break after every two levels of play.