The second of two starting flights of the 2017 World Poker Tour (WPT) Rolling Thunder Main Event drew to a close last night with 210 players deciding to give it a go on Sunday. That brings the combined field to 376 so far; registration is open until the beginning of Level 11 (Monday will start on Level 9) and those who already played are still permitted one more entry on Day 2, so we won’t know the final numbers until later today. The Day 1B chip leader was Ting Ho, whose 181,300 chips also barely edged those of Saturday’s leader, Dhaval Joshi, for the overall chip lead.
Ting Ho’s live tournament profile is interesting. She has $373,070 in earnings according to TheHendonMob.com; nothing incredible for a poker player, but still a very nice sum. She has a long list of more than 60 live cashes, but even with all those successes and her six-figure earnings total, the vast majority of her scores are in three-digit buy-in tournaments. Ho’s largest cash came back in 2012 when she won a $500 + $50 at the Wynn Classic for $51,876. More recently, she finished 16th at the 2016 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship Event for $35,000.
Ho wasn’t necessarily planning on playing in this event, but she took a shot at a satellite at the Thunder Valley Casino Resort and won a seat, so here she is.
As Ho isn’t a “name” poker player, she was not featured in the live tournament updates until late, when she was at or near the top of the leader board. After the evening ended, she told WPT.com about her day, saying that early on, she was just “grinding,” slowly building her stack through small, uneventful pots.
“But then I had aces cracked,” she said, recalling a hand in which someone called her with 6-9 suited pre-flop and went on to river a straight.
She continued (courtesy WPT.com):
And then an orbit later I have pocket aces again. It was the same action, a person raised, another called, so I made it 4x [the big blind] again, and then fold, and I get a call. So I’m like, ‘Ah [laughs]!’ And then the flop comes queen-high board with three diamonds, and I have the ace of diamonds. So I lead, I think he wanted to just call, but he threw out one too many orange chips (5,000) so it had to be a raise, so I flat. The turn comes a brick, I check, and he just piles all in. I thought for a while, I would have still had 15 big blinds going into Day 2, and I just decided to call, and he had ace-king.
There are 197 players remaining from the two starting flights, but as mentioned, expect the field to grow a bit more today. Day 2 begins at 12:00pm Pacific.
2017 World Poker Tour Rolling Thunder Main Event – Day 1B Chip Leaders
1. Ting Ho – 181,300
2. Ben Barad – 172,700
3. Alan Bittikofer – 132,500
4. Kou Vang – 111,400
5. Ari Engel – 105,600
6. Tyler Patterson – 104,100
7. Alan Snow – 103,800
8. Dan O’Brien – 101,800
9. Eddy Sabat – 100,300
10. Bob Buckenmayer – 99,800
2017 World Poker Tour Rolling Thunder Main Event – Day 1B Chip Leaders
1. Ting Ho – 181,300
2. Dhaval Joshi – 181,100
3. Jon Borenstein – 173,800
4. Ben Barad – 172,700
5. Michael Tureniec – 146,000
6. Kelly Douglas – 139,100
7. Alan Bittikofer – 132,500
8. Eric Baldwin – 113,700
9. J. C. Tran – 112,900
10. Kou Vang – 111,400
