Stuart Hulston Leads 2015 WPT National London Accumulator After Day 1 Flights
Stuart Hulston finished with the overall lead not only on Day 1c, but also overall with all three Day 1 flights combined. He racked up another 109,300 in chips on the final flight of the 2015 partypoker World Poker Tour National London £200 No-Limit Hold'em Accumulator at Aspers Casino.
Most of Hulston's chips came from a rivereded king-high straight flush with that got paid off. Towards the end, it was a very close race with Paul Bennett, who ended up second best with 108,100 after Day 1c. Interestingly enough, Bennett also ended the day with a straight flush.
The third and final flight attracted a total of 224 entries including all online qualifiers. Throughout the three starting days, there were 372 unique entries and 222 reentries. The overall attendance of 594 entries created a prize pool of £106,920, and there were eight players to accumulate chips in all three flights.
Hulston (181,000) overtook Day 1b chip leader Matas Cimbolas (169,200) and Aziz Kara finished as third in chips overall with 142,100. It was also Kara who flat-called a raise with pocket kings to trap and bust WPT Champions Club member Tony Dunst just before the end of Day 1c. Dunst did advance with chips from another flight, though.
Other big stacks advancing to Day 2, which will begin at 1 p.m. UK time on Saturday, include Kevin Allen (130,200), Zagon Calin (121,200), Peteris Berzins (113,200), Ali Zihni (102,400), and Laurence Essa (94,100). Surinder Sunar (90,200), the aforementioned Dunst (74,500), Tristan Chaplin (73,500), WPT500 Nottingham runner-up Matthew Noonan (70,400), Aleksandar Spadijer (58,700), and Tamer Kamel (55,900) will return with above-average stacks as well.
Sinem Melin, Steven Watts, and James Dempsey played on both Day 1b and 1c, but all of them couldn't bag up any chips. James Akenhead (40,200) and former WPTN London champion Gabriel Tuna (29,200) are below average, but they'll still be returning nonetheless.
The second tournament day is scheduled to host 12 levels of 40 minutes each or until the last 16 players has been reached, whichever of the two comes first. The payouts have not been published yet, but will become available before the start of Day 2. The same also applies for the redraw of the remaining 205 players.
Be sure to tune back in to PokerNews to follow the live updates and find out who is in contention to become the next WPT National champion.