Buck Ramsay Leads Day 1a of the Main Event as 13 Survive
The first of two Day 1 flights for the 2015 Seneca Fall Poker Classic $1,000 Main Event went off in Niagara Falls, NY, on Friday.
Day 1a drew a total of 82 entries, with just 13 players making it through 15 40-minute levels to book a seat in Sunday's Day 2.
As it seems every Main Event at Seneca Niagara is these days, this one was all about Port Colborne, ON, Canada's Buck Ramsay.
The winner of both the 2015 Western NY Poker Challenge Main Event and the 2014 Summer Slam Main Event got things started by winning a big pot with kings early. Then, just before the halfway mark of the day, Andy Spears ran suited into Ramsay's kings to give him close to 100,000 in chips.
Ramsay spun that up even more before picking up another pot with aces, and finally stacking a second player on six figures with kings, again, against the right before play halted. In the end, he bagged a massive 461,500.
University of Rochester student Yi-Wei Lu also had a big day, running well, playing well, and threatening for the lead all day and night before bagging his own massive stack of 395,000.
But it was 2014 Seneca Niagara Poker Classic champ Rick Block who earned the spot under Ramsay on the leader board at the end of play.
Block's title defense started off a little rocky, as he busted early and fired a second bullet. A swingy day saw him head into the late levels with a decent stack, before he played Blake Napierala like a fiddle in Level 15, check-calling all in with a rivered flush to bust the Seneca superstar and bag a big 397,000 himself.
The 13 surviving players will return to play for seats at the final table Sunday morning, but Saturday is another day and another flight, as Day 1b of the the 2015 Seneca Fall Poker Classic $1,000 Main Event kicks off at 11 a.m. local time.
PokerNews will be on hand for every flop, turn, and river, and you are more than welcome to join us then.