Welcome to Day 1a of the August 2019 Colorado Poker Championship $1,100 Main Event!
The month of August has been full of action inside the Golden Gates Casino and Poker Parlour as the August 2019 Colorado Poker Championship has conducted 18 preliminary events over the last two weeks that have drawn impressive field sizes, showing the nation what poker is all about in this part of the country. Thursday will see the first of three starting flights of the $1,100 Main Event as Day 1a is set to get underway at noon local time.
The Colorado Poker Championship series runs three times each year: the most recent Main Event was this past March, which saw Mike Itoafa best a field of 205 entries to win a first-place prize of $33,125. Itoafa also happens to be the defending champion of last summer’s Main Event, where he took home $49,679 when he topped a field of 264 entries.
This year’s Main Event was originally scheduled with two starting flights, though a third was added due to popular demand. Also at stake are 10 seats to the $2,500 High Roller event on Wednesday, August 28 for those top finishers in the series-long points leader board. The winner of the Main Event will earn 200 points towards their total and any player making the final table will earn at least 40, meaning every single entrant into the Main Event has a shot at a free entry into the High Roller. Here is a look at the leader board as of August 21.
| Position | Player | Total Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mitch Lekarczyk | 263 |
| 2 | Behrouz Keshtavar | 259 |
| 3 | Erik Macias | 250 |
| 4 | Mansour Alipourfard | 215 |
| 5 | Nathaniel Zoller | 203 |
| 6 | Corey Zedo | 175 |
| 7 | Rich Dixon | 173 |
| 8 | James Callanan | 150 |
| 9 | William Givens | 150 |
| 10 | William Yarosh | 133 |
For the Main Event, players will receive 30,000 in starting chips with blinds beginning at 50/100. Levels will last 40 minutes each to start, with 15-minute breaks at the completion of every three levels and a 45-minute dinner break after Level 9. The big-blind ante kicks in starting Level 5 and late registration will be open until the end of the dinner break at approximately 7:15 p.m. local time.
What makes this structure special is that levels will increase to 60 minutes in length after the final break of the day, following Level 12. Thus, the final two hours of play for the evening will consist of only two levels, with players bagging their chips to end Day 1a after Level 14 (1,200/2,400/2,400). Play will also be nine-handed throughout the entirety of the tournament.
PokerNews will be on site providing coverage of the action for the rest of the series. Stay tuned to catch it all.