Ryan Van Leads Day 1cd of Event #15: $1,500 Main Event; Ruben Bags Top Ten Stack
Another day is in the books here at Champions Club in Houston, Texas as Day 1d of the WPO Event #15: $1,500 Main Event has come to a close. This flight produced 123 total entries as players took their shot today in the $1 million guaranteed event, but only 15 finished the day with chips in a bag. Leading the way is Ryan Van who bagged up 1,394,000, which is now the top stack out of the first four flights. Behind him is Lawrence Lazar with 934,000, followed by David Lawson with 660,000. Rounding out the top five is Phillip Bertram in fourth with 600,090 and [Removed:460] in fifth with 530,000.
Day 1d Top Ten Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ryan Van | 1,394,000 | 139 |
| 2 | Lawrence Lazar | 934,000 | 93 |
| 3 | David Lawson | 660,000 | 66 |
| 4 | Phillip Bertram | 600,090 | 60 |
| 5 | Matthew Abell | 551,000 | 55 |
| 6 | [Removed:460] | 530,000 | 53 |
| 7 | Brad Ruben | 483,000 | 48 |
| 8 | Jason Fitzpatrick | 394,000 | 39 |
| 9 | Jeffrey Nowling | 325,000 | 33 |
| 10 | Philip Nguyen | 315,000 | 32 |
The action started out relatively slow today as there was only one table for the first level and a half, but the numbers quickly grew as the room turned into a frenzy. With the High-Roller and Ladies tournaments ongoing at the same time, every single table here at Champions Club was full, even the stream table. By 5 p.m., there was a ton of chips being thrown around in the Main Event that onlookers thought it was $200 daily!
One of the key players in all of this action was none other than Brad Ruben who went on a massive heater halfway through the day, pickup up aces multiple times, hitting the nut flush versus the second-nut flush, and even hitting quads. He was chip leading with close to 900,000 at one point but lost a series a big hands towards the end to finish with 483,000. That's when Ryan Van, who was seated to his left for most of the day, started to take off. He just kept adding chips to his stack and knocking people out one-by-one and eventually ended the day by picking up aces against Christopher Chomenko and eliminated him on the bubble. Lazar also ran up a huge stack on the day, and although no big hands were recorded with him, he consistently held a big stack throughout most of the day.
Some players who didnt find a bag that are set to return include Will Leffingwell, Jessica Richards, Derek Normand, Justin Brassieur, James Galloway, Viet Vo, Ray Henson, and Kris Burchfield.
As this is the fourth of six starting flights, there is still plenty of time for players to get in on this action as the largest flights are still to come on Friday and Saturday. There will also be multiple satellites each day as well as PLO flips for many chances to get into this tournament cheaply.
Day 1e fires off tomorrow at noon local time, and as always, PokerNews will be back on the scene with all of the action!