Baron Tops 16 Survivors on Day 1c; Martirosian and Watson Among Big Stacks
The third starting day of the 2021 GGPoker Super MILLION$ Week $10,300 Main Event has come to a conclusion. Day 1c attracted a total field of 140 unique entries and 43 re-entries to boost the overall field to 632 entries.
After 22 levels of 20 minutes each, the field was thinned down to just 16 survivors and WSOP bracelet winner Isaac Baron claimed the lead with a stack of 2,689,768. Baron had nearly reached 3 million in chips in the final level of the night but had to settle for less than that, narrowly missing out on the overall lead.
Russia's rising star Artur Martirosian finished in second place with 2,056,261 while Mike Watson turned his fourth entry for Day 1c into a stack of 1,541,833. Kenneth Smaron finished right behind that with 1,540,218 and the top 10 for the penultimate flight also include Yuri Dzivielevski (1,380,298) and Vlad Martynenko (1,147,664).
Top 10 Counts Super MILLION$ Week $10,300 Main Event Day 1c
| Position | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds Day 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Isaac Baron | United States | 2,689,768 | 134 |
| 2 | Artur Martirosian | Russia | 2,056,261 | 103 |
| 3 | Mike Watson | Canada | 1,541,833 | 77 |
| 4 | Kenneth Smaron | United States | 1,540,218 | 77 |
| 5 | nomoretilt | China | 1,385,857 | 69 |
| 6 | Yuri Dzivielevski | Brazil | 1,380,298 | 69 |
| 7 | JESUSYAAZY | Austria | 1,294,495 | 65 |
| 8 | Luciano "CaboDaciolo" De Hollanda | Brazil | 1,182,014 | 59 |
| 9 | Vlad Martynenko | Ukraine | 1,147,664 | 57 |
| 10 | Pan-DaDa | China | 1,071,686 | 54 |
Among the further survivors were Christopher Frank (1,049,028), Jean-Noel "OscarBrown" Thorel (356,509), Justin Bonomo (212,570), and Aleksejs Ponakovs (162,318). All those unhappy with their earned stack sizes for Day 2 may also enter the final starting day on Sunday March 7 as the best stack is carried forward.
Day 1c saw 16 players out of the 183 entries survive, which makes for 75 qualified players thus far with one starting day to come.
The Action of the Day
Day 1c had barely commenced when Artur Martirosian jumped to the top of the leaderboard by knocking out Aleksandr Trofimov. It was a sign for the things to come in the hours beyond that, as the pace of all-in showdowns, new entries, and re-entries never really slowed down.
Isaac Haxton was among those to try and run up a stack despite already having virtually bagged up chips in a previous flight. However, his efforts were not crowned by success and Haxton was one of many high-profile casualties of the day. Other notables who came and left without anything to show for were Dario Sammartino, Brunno Botteon, Kristen Bicknell, Luke Schwartz, Sam Greenwood, GGPoker ambassador Anatoly Filatov, and Stephen Chidwick.
The first three bullets of Mike Watson brought no success but he re-entered once more. His rise began with a preflop contest in which ace-five suited cracked the pocket aces of Dinesh "NastyMinder" Alt. In the first level after the end of the late registration, Watson then scored a big double through David Coleman and maintained his big stack thereafter.
However, towards the end of the day it was Isaac Baron who set the pace. He was responsible for the fall of Luke Schwartz when he flopped a set and rivered a full house to catch Schwartz bluffing with ten-high. Baron also knocked out the always dangerous Michael Addamo when aces prevailed against ace-queen. Laurynas Levinskas fell victim to his hot run as well, losing a flip with ace-king versus jacks in the final level of the night.
The last few minutes then reduced the field further as notables such as Michel "CrossfireX" Dattani, Arie Muller, and Samuel "vivaegipto" Bernabeu all departed just shy of reaching Day 2. Artur Martirosian then knocked out Daniyar Aubakirov when he called a river jam with top pair and was shown kings for a worse pair.
With three of the four starting days wrapped up, the current field size stands at 632 entries. That may still be shy of covering the ambitious $10 million guarantee. However, the Super Sunday on GGPoker is always known to produce the biggest fields for all major tournaments.
Day 1d will kick off at 6 p.m. UTC and the PokerNews live reporting team will be back then to provide all the action.