Day 1b Sends 57 Players Through to Final Day
The second starting flight for the 2019 SIGA Poker Championship is now in the books, and Day 2 is set. After 40 players made it through Day 1a, a total of 57 players ended up bagging chips on Day 1b.
At the top of the list for both days is Dallas Larson. Larson built up an astonishing stack of 418,000, more than 100,000 more than the second place stack of Warren McCallum with 307,000. Third place belongs to Day 1a chip leader Josh Hopkins, who bagged 272,000.
The room was packed to start the day, and tournament staff even opened a few extra tables. Normally, the tournament seating is capped at 150, but two extra tables opened early today to seat 170 entries to start. Rebuys were slow because there weren't many bustouts in the early levels, and by the time late registration closed, there were 200 total entries in play.
The lead changed hands quite a few times during the day. Earlier in the day, Clint Cockburn was one of the first players to cross the 100,000 chip barrier. Later on, James Hart managed to build a massive stack of over 200,000 only to see it dwindle in late-stage play. Skylar Kingdon was well over 200,000 as well at one point, but doubled up Cockburn near the end of the night to drop a bit below. John Hashem looked to be the end-of-day chip leader as play went into the last two levels, but he lost some to eventual big stack Dallas Larson.
The 57 remaining players from today will join the 40 who made it through Day 1a for tomorrow's final day. Day 2 will play down to a winner, but the first order of business will be getting into the cash. With 97 players returning and only 51 cashing spots, nearly half the Day 2 field will go home empty handed.
Action for Day 2 kicks off at noon Sunday and they'll play as long as it takes for one player to collect all the chips. Follow along with the live updates all day here at PokerNews Canada, and be here when they crown the 2019 SIGA Poker Champion.