Sanaul Haque Himel Bags Chip Lead on Day 1b
After a very successful Day 1a in Event #2: $1,100 No Limit Hold’em at the PokerStars Summer Series at Live! Casino and Hotel Philadelphia the hopes were high that Day 1b would be filled with action. It did not disappoint.
A total of 27 players bagged and made the money in this flight and not one but two players surpassed the chip count of Day 1a’s chip leader Robert Elias during the day. However, after a rollercoaster ride by multiple players it was Sanaul Haque Himel who came out with the chip lead bagging a massive 816,000 chip stack. Himel was up and down throughout the day but once he gathered enough chips to put the pressure on, he was seen pushing his equity and playing some exploitative poker in multiple spots. Including some sharp bubble play. He will take his game and his chips into Day 2. Hopefully the run-good follows as well.
There were still plenty of players that finished with healthy stacks besides Himel. Right on his heels was Nicholas Skyllas (791,000) who also held the chip lead at multiple times throughout the night. The year of Weng continues as local and international crusher Bin Weng (760,000) bagged a stack that was good for third place on the day. Michael Cologna (680,000) gained a ton of steam late in the day and finished out with a top five stack and will hope to spin it even farther on Day 2.
Day 1b Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sanaul Haque Himel | United States | 816,000 |
| 2 | Nicholas Skyllas | United States | 791,000 |
| 3 | Bin Weng | United States | 760,000 |
| 4 | Michael Cologna | United States | 680,000 |
| 5 | Stanton Tentnowski | United States | 594,000 |
| 6 | Ron Adams | United States | 589,000 |
| 7 | Chris Basile | United States | 433,000 |
| 8 | Drew O'Connell | United States | 417,000 |
| 9 | Simon Levy | United States | 416,000 |
| 10 | Chris O'Neil | United States | 386,000 |
Day 1b Bubble
The bubble was long and slow. The last 10 players eliminated took almost 2 hours to bust. Luckily, Bin Weng was willing to do the dirty work and burst the bubble after he jammed the flop with a naked flush draw and got there right on the turn to send his opponent to the rail in brutal fashion. He will hope to take that same luck and skill into Day 2.
The big story continues to be the fantastic turnout for the whole PokerStars Summer Series thus far. Event #1 doubled the prize pool, and this event is well on its way to finishing in a similar area. The $300,000 guarantee has already been met and the Saturday morning flight is expected to pull the biggest crowd yet. There is another real possibility that the guarantee is also doubled by the end of late registration in Day 1c.
The final opening flight begins Saturday at 11:15 a.m. local time, with late registration and reentries open until the start of Level 10. If you have the opportunity to make it to the last flight on Saturday morning you will not want to miss the action.
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