Bin Weng Leads After First Flight in $5,300 NAPT Main Event
The first starting flight of the $5,300 Main Event of the 2024 PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) festival at Resorts World Las Vegas wrapped up late Tuesday night with reigning GPI Player of the Year Bin Weng leading the way with over 200 big blinds.
Weng will be joined on Day 2 by big stacks like Michael Lavenburg, Martin Carnero and PokerStars qualifier Andrew Voor. Other players who advanced include Jeremy Ausmus, Dan Sepiol, Patrick Leonard, Brian Altman, Farah Galfond, David "ODB" Baker, Matthew Salsberg and Griffin Benger.
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bin Weng | United States | 359,000 | 239 |
| 2 | Michael Lavenburg | United States | 307,500 | 205 |
| 3 | Andrew Voor | United States | 281,000 | 187 |
| 4 | Martin Carnero | United States | 267,000 | 178 |
| 5 | Eric Medved | United States | 240,000 | 160 |
| 6 | Jonathan Newman | Canada | 232,500 | 155 |
| 7 | Colton Blomberg | United States | 216,500 | 144 |
| 8 | Eric Blair | United States | 213,500 | 142 |
| 9 | Nathan Wasson | United States | 211,500 | 141 |
| 10 | Zhiqin Zeng | United States | 209,500 | 140 |
Day 1a Action
The eagerly-awaited NAPT Main Event got underway after four days of preliminary events, which initially took place in the Resorts World Poker Room before moving up to the convention area.
Day 1a drew 276 players, pushing the event toward its $3 million guaranteed prize pool.
There were Gold Pass qualifiers in the field like Steven Maddison, Xavier Pacheco, Lee Jackson and Michael Harris, who traded pots with top pros including Chance Kornuth, WSOP Main Event champions Ryan Riess and Martin Jacobson, and PokerStars Ambassadors Maria Konnikova, Maria Ho and Barny Boatman.
There were plenty of highlights on Day 1a, including Kenzo Ishida tanking for five minutes as he nearly folded a straight and Nathan Wasson cracking the aces of mixed game author Dylan Linde.
There are still two starting flights left to play, both of which will take place on Wednesday, Nov. 5. Day 1b will get underway at noon local time, while the turbo-structured Day 1c will kick off at 6 p.m. Action will pick up on Level 11 with blinds of 1,000/1,500/1,500.
Stay tuned as PokerNews will be back on-site tomorrow for coverage of the two remaining Main Event starting flights. Check out the NAPT live reporting hub in the meantime.