Hong and Godfrey Big Stacks After Day 1 of Event #26: The Marathon - $2,620 No-Limit Hold’em
The first day of Event #26: The Marathon - $2,620 No-Limit Hold’em has been completed, and in its the third year, the event which gives players a starting stack of 26,200 chips attracted a field of 941 entries and ended with just 467 players still racing towards Day 2. Registration is still open until the end of level 8 tomorrow, and with 100-minute levels, that gives players time to limber up, but plenty of players set a strong pace today to get the tournament running.
Peter Hong led the field when the chips were bagged up, with 179,000 chips, but players such as Christopher Godfrey (pictured left) was one of the biggest stacks at close of play too, ending just behind Hong with 177,200 chips, but there are other big stacks in the running, including Uri Reichenstein (163,400), Corentin Ropert (134,200) and Matt Berkey (103,300).
Jamie Gold, the 2006 Main Event Champion, managed to keep a comfortable stack the whole day and doubled his stack thanks to a big hand versus the two-time bracelet winner Loni Harwood to climb around 100,000 chips by the close of play.
On a flop of 
, Harwood bet 2,000 and Gold made the call. Things heated up when a 
showed up on the turn. Harwood continued for 3,500 this time and faced a raise to 10,000 from Gold. Harwood decided to push all in with a slightly bigger stack than Gold, putting him to a decision.
"I have the second nuts!" said Gold, adding, "Am I good enough to fold here? I don't think I am." Gold ended up calling, revealing 
and when Harwood tabled 
for a lower flush, Gold grabbed the massive pot while Harwood busted a few hands later. Gold lost a few pots before the end of the day, but still bagged a stack of 50,200.
Other notables who found a bag for Day 2 are Matt Stout (52,700), Tony Miles (63,500), Dan O'Brien (59,200), Sam Grafton (47,800), Marvin Rettenmaier (18,800),Nial Farrell (41,800), Diogo Veiga (24,900), Athanasios Polychronopoulos (24,400), Maria Lampropulos (35,900), Adrian Mateos (32,300), Seth Davies (28,000) and Kristen Bickell, who bagged up a short stack of 6,500 chips.
Many familiar were also lost along the run, such as Bart Lybaert, who finished third in this event last year. He was joined on the rail by Jessica Dawley, Griffin Benger, Maria Ho, Faraz Jaka, Antoine Saout, Danny Tang, Michael Gathy and Phil Laak right at the end of the day. The Belgium pro Thomas Boivin busted on the very last hand of the day, pushing his last 1,600 in the middle with 
and got called by the big blind player holding 
. The board didn't help Boivin who was eliminated from the tournament at the very last minute of the day.
Day 2 starts at 12 noon Tuesday, June 11th and six more levels will be played with a 15-minute break after every level. The total prize pool will be announced after play has started, so be sure to keep your eyes on PokerNews to find out what the winner will take home.