Blake Whittington Takes Overall Lead in Event 5
The third flight in Event 5: $600 Mystery Bounty $300,000 has now come to an end after nine hours of play. A total of 132 showed up for Day 1c and just 17 managed to advance. When the last chance saloon had closed for business it was Blake whittington sitting atop the leaderboard with 790,000, good for the overall lead in this event.
Whittington was on a steady climb throughout the day and was in mostly small pots until the end of the night. Jason Alverez put Whittington to the test when he shoved a river with king-high. Whittington called with a pair of jacks and the correct read was enough to catapult him into the lead.
Top Five Counts from Day 1c
| Rank | Player | Hometown | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
| 1 | Blake Whittington | Cleveland, TN | 790,000 | 198 |
| 2 | Nathan Jessen | Blair, NE | 459,000 | 115 |
| 3 | Demetrius Campbell | San Antonio, TX | 267,000 | 67 |
| 4 | Michael Noori | Tarzana, CA | 246,000 | 62 |
| 5 | Tino Gloria Jr | Temple, TX | 243,000 | 61 |
Nathan Jessen was the only other player even considerably close to Whittington, bagging 459,000 by the end of the night. Jessen ran pure at the beginning of the day and surged to the top when he rivered a boat against Alexander Suprun who had turned a straight.
The 16 survivors will be joining the other 23 who made it through the first two flights for Day 2. The last flight of the event is still running but upon completion the numbers will be posted and all who bag will return tomorrow at 2 p.m. for the final day. The mystery bounties will be in play and blinds will go up to 40-minutes in length.
That wraps it up for the PokerNews live coverage of this flight, but tune in now as Day 1d is still in progress.