Theodocion Bags Overall Chip Lead, Moscati and Hawkins Among the Leaders after Day 1b
The second and final starting flight of the World Series of Poker Circuit $1,700 Main Event has come to an end after another full 16 levels were completed. It was another impressive showing at the Harrah's Cherokee Casino Resort with 697 total entries for Day 1b. There were 115 survivors from Saturday night and Pete Theodocion topped them all with a whopping stack of 613,000 chips.
Outside of Jacksonville, the rest of Theodocion's recorded cashes have come from Las Vegas throughout his poker career. As a recreational player, Theodocion mostly just enjoys playing some local events but has proved that he can hang with the big boys on a big stage. Theodocion was cruising under the radar for much of the day until around the 14th level when he appeared as the chipleader with over 500,000. He continued to run up his stack and bagged the overall chip lead heading to Day 2.
The leaderboard was also filled with some notable names including Vincent Moscati (540,000), Ryan D'Angelo (490,000), and Maurice Hawkins (483,000). Moscati has been a regular on the WSOP Circuit for quite some time and has plenty of results to show for it. Just recently, Moscati finished second in the Main Event at Choctaw for over $157,000 and will be looking to add another six-figure score to his name.
D'Angelo had an exciting day at the table capped off by one of the most interesting hands of the evening. In a four-bet pot, D'Angelo was on the button and heads up with the small blind. The small blind check-raised a nine-high flop and then check-called when a deuce hit the turn. The river was an eight and the small blind checked to D'Angelo who shoved all in. His opponent folded and D'Angelo scooped the pot to move over the 400,000 chip mark.
It was a much busier start to the day with over 200 players taking their seats to kick things off. That number continued to escalate as players filtered into the event center. With 697 entries after late registration closed, a total field of 1,057 resulted in a prize pool of over $1.6 million. There were 115 players that bagged chips on Day 1b which means 174 players will return for Day 2.
A few more notables to maneuver their way through the field today included Elilton Gouveia (543,000), Adam Wandler (427,000), Ryan Eriquezzo (265,000), Marius Conan (263,000), Martin Kozlov (236,000), and Richard Seymour (203,000). There were many players that failed to make it through, some of them using up multiple bullets in the two starting flights. Warren Sheaves, Heather Alcorn, Eric Salazar, Mo Nuwwarah, Allen Kessler, Adam Cedric, Cosmin Joldis, and Kevin Eyster were a few to hit the rail.
When the action resumes at noon local time on Sunday, there will be 174 players in their seats with just 159 of them reaching the money. The money bubble is just on the horizon which could make for some slow play until it bursts. The blinds will resume on level 17 at 2,000/5,000 and a 5,000 big blind ante. The levels will be 60 minutes in length with 10 levels on the schedule for tomorrow.
Keep it locked here for all of the live updates throughout the entire tournament from your PokerNews live reporting team.