Spears Falters Slightly, Brunskole Grabs the Lead on Day 1b of the 2017 WNYPC Main Event
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The second and final first-day flight for the 2017 Western New York Poker Challenge Main Event went off at the Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino Saturday and it was a big one.
After a snow day Friday limited first flight entries to just 84, they drew a whopping 183 entries Saturday. That made it a grand total of 267 entries, outdoing last year's 244 and creating a massive guarantee-smashing $235,681 prizepool.
They'll pay a total of 27 players and first place is a juicy $57,738.
By the time 15 levels of play were through Saturday, just 38 players remained in the thick of it. They will be joined by the 17 survivors from Friday as a total of 55 go through to Sunday's playdown to a final table.
Flight 1b was a seesaw affair that saw the chip lead change hands dozens of time throughout the day. In the end, legendary local rounder Andy Spears faltered a bit and Niagara Falls, Canada's Matt Brunskole grabbed the lead in the last level of the night.
Play will resume at 11 a.m. local time Sunday with the money bubble in sight plans to play down to the final nine and possibly beyond.
PokerNews' coverage of the 2017 WNYPC will continue at that time.