Chris Gras Wins WNYPC Event #1 for $18,000
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Topping a field of 798 entries, Chris Gras has claimed the first title at the 2018 Western New York Poker Challenge. The victory comes in Event #1: $200 No-Limit Hold'em $50,000 Guarantee of the annual series hosted by the Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino. After multiple deals at the final table, Gras walked away with $18,000 for the win.
Coming into the series, Gras had just $27,239 in career live-recorded tournament earnings. This is by far the largest cash on his resume with his previous best coming at the 2016 World Series of Poker where he finished 210th in the Colossus II cashing for $5,122.
Final Table Results:
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chris Gras | United States | $18,000 |
| 2 | John Brock | United States | $12,000 |
| 3 | Budwey Salhab | United States | $11,453 |
| 4 | Chris Damick | United States | $9,000 |
| 5 | Andrew Miller | United States | $7,500 |
| 6 | Michelle Caldwell | United States | $8,500 |
| 7 | Blake Napierala | United States | $9,000 |
| 8 | Anthony Soluri | United States | $7,000 |
| 9 | Matt Heiligenthaler | United States | $2,578 |
| 10 | Chris Babula | United States | $1,972 |
Day 2 got underway with 104 hopefuls remaining with just 72 making the money. The bubble approached quickly and hand-for-hand play only last three hands before then chipleader, Chris Babula, popped it besting an opponent's pocket nines with pocket tens.
Two of the Day 1 flight chipleaders saw their stacks dispersed amongst the field much earlier than they would have liked with start of day leaderDan Wagner busting in 43rd place earning $580. Day 1b top stack, Tim Campbell, made it as far as 33rd before he collected his $670 cash.
The field reached the final table bubble just before dinner and not long after the players returned, Jack Kerr got into a short-stacked blind versus blind battle with eventual runner-up John Brock that he could not win and busted in 11th place banking $1,972.
Babula was the first player to drop from the final table running pocket eights into Blake Napierala's pocket queens. The very next hand, Matt Heiligenthaler got it in good against Gras' king-queen but Gras caught a king and sent Heiligenthaler to the rail in ninth.
The final eight players negotiated a deal to chop up the remaining prize pool leaving $10,000 for the eventual champion and about $8,400 for the runner-up. After locking up $7,000, Anthony Soluri lost a race with ace-king to Salhab's pocket tens to depart in eighth.
Chris Damick then went on a tear knocking out Napierala and Michelle Campbell in back-to-back hands before Gras outdrew Andrew Miller to leave the event four-handed. The players then decided to take $2,453 off the top two prizes to pay third place an extra slice.
After losing a couple massive pots, one of them being one-outtered by Brock, Damick got the rest of it in against Budwey Salhab running into another massive hand to bust in fourth. Not long after Damick's demise, Salhab found himself in a dominated position against Gras and was unable to improve joining Damick on the rail.
Gras started the heads-up battle with a significant chip lead but Brock quickly fought back to grab his own lead. The two jockeyed back and forth for the better part of two levels before Gras woke up with aces and snap-called a five-bet jam from Brock with king-ten. That pot left Brock with less than two big blinds and Gras finished him off two hands later.
The 2018 WYNPC rolls on as Event #3: $120 No-Limit Hold'em $10,000 Guarantee is set for 5 PM local time on Monday evening.
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