Jennings Makes Late Surge in Day 1a of the $1,700 Main Event, Cartwright Looking to Defend Title
It was a jam-packed tournament room at the Horseshoe Casino in Tunica, Mississippi for Day 1a of the World Series of Poker Circuit $1,700 Main Event. A total of 150 entries were recorded for the opening flight and after a full 16 levels of poker, only 24 players bagged up chips to move on to Day 2.
Leading the way with a staggering 379,000 chips was Lytle Allen. In the 14th level of the day, Allen had a big decision to make for his tournament life with a raise and an all-in in front of him. Allen put the pieces together and decided to go with his pocket kings on a ten-high board which paid off against his opponent's straight draw. Heading into the last few hands of the night, Allen was among the contenders and won a coin flip with ace-king against pocket tens, spiking two aces on the board, to vault him into the chip lead.
Another late rally came from Greg Jennings who was sitting on the same table as Allen. Jennings came out victorious in a massive three-way all-in with pocket queens against pocket jacks and ace-queen. Jennings finished the day second in chips with 326,000, more than enough to position himself for a deep run. Jennings is a regular on the WSOP Circuit but is still looking to capture his first WSOP ring.
Things got underway bright and early at 11 a.m. local time with around 50 players in their seats. That number quickly grew through the opening levels but plateaued as the day went on. It was a slow pace in the early going as a starting stack represented 300 big blinds for the first two levels of play.
The first major collision of the day occurred moments after the second break when Jody Stanfill turned the nut-straight against his opponent's top two pair. All of the chips went in the middle to create nearly a 300 big blind pot and Stanfill held on to sit atop of the leaderboard. Stanfill continued to trend upward for most of the day but lost a couple of late pots, still finishing with 273,000 chips.
Another big pot went the way of the defending champion Kyle Cartwright. Already on his second bullet of the day, Cartwright elected to make a move on the turn in a five-way pot with a gut-shot straight draw. The river made Cartwright's straight which was the perfect card as his opponent river top two pair. Cartwright doubled up in that hand and soared towards the top of the counts, bagging an impressive 204,000 for Day 2.
Some other big stacks to make note of include Timothy Miles (315,000), Shanmukha Meruga (277,000), Brandon Newsome (261,000), Chico Pho (253,000), and Warren Sheaves (224,000). There were also many players who fell short of bagging chips. Jake Bazeley, Heather Alcorn, Vincent Moscati, Adam Lamphere, Irene Carey, Brett Apter, and Hank Sitton are among those that will be forced to play Day 1b if they want a shot at winning the title.
The PokerNews team will also be back tomorrow to bring you all of the live updates from the tournament floor for another 16 levels of poker.