Paul Lee Ends Day 1e as Overall Chip Leader in the $1,200 Main Event at The Commerce Casino Hold'em Series
The fifth and final Day 1 flight in the $1,200 Main Event at The Commerce Casino Hold’em Series has been completed. Day 1e saw the most entrants yet with 254, almost doubling the amount of entrants from the first four flights, bringing the total to 517, creating a prize pool of $542,800. 25 players advanced to Day 2, bringing the final number of players to 51 who advanced on to Day 2. The chip leader at the end of Day 1e is Paul W Lee who bagged 930,000.
Lee will come into Day 2 as the overall chip leader. He is an Orange County, Ca. resident with over $450,000 in career poker earnings, with a high score of $140,273 when he finished third in the 2018 Super Seniors Event at The World Series of Poker. Right behind Lee in chips is Edgar Diaz who managed to bag 875,000, and in third is notable LA live stream player Michael Nia with 811,000.
Top 10 Chip Counts From Day 1e
| Place | Name | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paul W Lee | United States | 930,000 |
| 2 | Edgar Diaz | United States | 875,000 |
| 3 | Michael Nia | United States | 811,000 |
| 4 | Ryan Tosoc | United States | 808,000 |
| 5 | Sanjeev Kapoor | United States | 609,000 |
| 6 | Stone Malick | United States | 593,000 |
| 7 | Martin Carnero | Peru | 581,000 |
| 8 | Christopher Preziotti | United States | 528,000 |
| 9 | Aaron Zhang | China | 494,000 |
| 10 | Derek Gregory | United States | 488,000 |
Other notable players in the top 10 chip counts from Day 1e include World Series of Poker bracelet winner Ryan Tosoc, Martin Carnero who has over $1,200,000 in poker earnings, and Derek Gregory who has over $1,000,000 in career poker earnings.
Bubble Popped By Quads
With several short stacks in the field, the 25 remaining players all found themselves in the money and onto Day 2 after a massive pot between the chip leader Paul W Lee and L.B. Gray. Lee called an under the gun raise from Gray when he was in the small blind. Both players checked to the turn after the flop came J♣3♦J♦ which brought the K♦. Lee then bet out 25,000 and then called a raise of 75,000 from Gray. After the 9♣ on the turn Lee check-called a massive all in of 300,000 from Gray. Lee then turned over J♠J♥ for quad jacks to become the overall chip leader heading into Day 2 as Gray showed 5♥5♦ as he left the tournament area being the unfortunate bubble boy.
One of the players who found a bag in Day 1e is Jesus Delgadillo (431,000) who got off to a hot start early in the day, when he made a straight flush on the river to eliminate a player who made a full house on the river. He was able to ride that momentum into Day 2 with a healthy stack of 431,000.
Day 2 action is set to begin at 11:00 a.m. local time on Sunday September 22 in Level 14 at the 3000/5000/5000 blind levels with 5:09 left on the clock. Players will play 40-minute levels until they reach the final table, when they will go to 60-minute levels. There will be 15-minute break after every two hours of play.
Make sure to stay tuned to PokerNews for live updates and coverage until a champion is crowned.