By the time many workers across the United States and Canada take their lunch breaks on Monday, the World Poker Tour North American Poker Championship (NAPC) will be well underway on Day 2, which kicks off at 12:00 noon local time. There were 166 players who coughed up the $10,300 CDN entry on Day 1C on Sunday, raising the overall field to 454. Last year, 504 entrants played in the NAPC, meaning the field size dropped by 10%. The World Poker Tour claims that the first place prize “should be no more than $1 million.”
After three starting days, the field of around 300 players will now be combined for Day 2 on Monday. For those who survived Day 1A on Friday, a two-day layoff occurred. Here are the top ten chip stacks in the room entering Day 2:
1st Place: Jamie Rosen – 196,300
2nd Place: Darus Suharto – 188,000
3rd Place: Stephen James Chidwick – 165,700
4th Place: Justin Tran – 159,300
5th Place: Kenan Zhang – 155,800
6th Place: Jon Hoellein – 143,400
7th Place: Steve Paul-Ambrose – 136,500
8th Place: Lee Markholt – 128,200
9th Place: John Mori – 127,600
10th Place: Christian Harder – 125,400
Suharto is a member of the WSOP November Nine, the group that will converge upon the Rio in Las Vegas to play out the World Series of Poker Main Event on the 9th of the month. He’s fifth in chips in that event and making waves at the Fallsview Casino, the site of the NAPC. Ambrose hails from Waterloo, Canada and finished fourth in a $5,000 buy-in World Championship Mixed Hold’em event during the 2007 WSOP. He’s also a member of Team PokerStars Pro. Rosen made the final table of a $1,000 rebuy No Limit Hold’em event at this year’s WSOP, pocketing $79,587.
The last WPT event prior to the NAPC was the Borgata Poker Open. Vivek Rajkumar, known in the online poker world as “Psyduck,” was its champion. He took home over $1.4 million for the win and is back to defend his title at Fallsview. He has the 22nd largest chip stack entering Day 2 with 99,600.
Another Season VII WPT winner, Mike Watson, remains in the field. He holds the 111th largest chip stack with 49,500. Watson won the Bellagio Cup IV, defeating David Beynamine heads-up in a final table that also included John “The Razor” Phan.
Also in the mix at the World Poker Tour event are many names you’ll know. Here they are along with their chip count headed into Day 2:
17. Matt Matros – 106,900
37. Joe Sebok – 84,700
42. Barry Greenstein – 81,300
60. Vanessa Rousso – 72,100
61. Erik Seidel – 71,800
69. Sebastian Ruthenberg – 68,100
105. Roy Winston – 52,300
121. Gavin Smith – 45,400
122. “Miami” John Cernuto – 45,000
136. Kathy Liebert – 42,000
158. Jordan Rich – 36,100
182. Bill Gazes – 28,800
189. Jason Gray – 28,100
195. Bill Edler – 27,400
209. Daniel Negreanu – 23,900
230. Yevgeniy Timoshenko – 18,800
255. Tim West – 14,400
264. Sorel Mizzi – 9,100
270. Mark Seif – 7,800
Those who were eliminated on Day 1C included Carlos Mortensen, Nick Schulman, John Juanda, and Erick Lindgren. The tournament’s six-handed final table will occur on Thursday. The total prize pool was expected to end up at $4.4 million, although no official numbers have been given by the WPT. Play on Monday will run for seven levels, including a dinner break, or until 99 players remain (whichever occurs first). When play resumes, blinds will be 400-800 with a 100 chip ante.