High Roller Momentum: Jeff Petronack Bags 2019 Fall Poker Classic Main Event Day 1a Chip Lead
The first of two starting days in the 2019 Canterbury Park Fall Poker Classic $1,100 Main Event has come to a close with 14 levels of 40 minutes having been played to their conclusion. The day saw 157 entries make their way to Shakopee, MN, and at the end of the day, 27 players punched their tickets to Day 2.
Jeff Petronack, who took second place in the $2,500 High Roller earlier this afternoon for $19,345, found his runner-up finish to be all the motivation he needed to put the most chips into a bag when play concluded for the evening. To say he finished the day with a huge chip lead would be an understatement: his stack of 377,500 wound up to be more than double that of anybody else in the field.
Petronack surged on the final level of the night, earning a huge double when he shoved all in on the river after filling up to a full house. He was paid off by pocket kings and didn't stop there, scoring at least two more knockouts before play ended to bring him up to his final chip total when chips went into bags.
Rounding out the top five in chips are Rob Wazwaz (168,500), Bobby Cassioppi (162,000), Rich Alsup (150,500), and Erick Wright (150,500). Those four are only half of a group of eight players to end the day with between 140,000 and 170,000 in chips, with other local faces such as Gennady Shimelfarb (143,500) and Gary Loeffler (143,500) also in the mix.
Despite bagging a top-ten stack, Loeffler’s ticket to Day 2 was far from a sure thing as he found himself down to just 6,000 in chips before climbing his way back up the leader board. One other player worthy of mention is defending champion, Nghia “3 Putts” Le (38,500), who bagged the shortest stack of all 27 players to advance.
Notable players who did not advance included Blake Bohn, Ian Matakis, Kou Vang, Scotter Clark, and Ahmed Taleb. Along with everybody else, they will have more chances on Saturday's Day 1b. The tournament is a “best stack forward” event, meaning that players who advanced could technically take another shot at bagging a larger stack on the final flight of the tournament.
Day 1b will see cards in the air on Saturday at noon local time with another 14 levels of 40 minutes on tap. Come back to PokerNews to catch all the action.