Tarik Mazari Bags the Overall Chip Lead Heading Into Day 2
The third flight of Event #8: $1,700 No Limit Holdem Main Event at the World Series of Poker Circuit Playground has ended. A total of 828 players fired on Day 1c, making it the largest flight by a wide margin. 131 players found a bag, and after it was all said and done, it was Tarik Mazari who held the chip lead with a massive stack of 1,330,000 which is good for 133 big blinds. It's also almost 400,000 more than the Rami Hammoud, who sits in second with 953,000. He played aggressively and picked his spots well, but he will need to continue that aggression on Day 2 if he plans to return Monday for Day 3. He was followed behind by Philippe Beaudoin-Pellerin with 940,000 and Matthew Paplyk with 800,000 to round out the podium for Day 1c.
Play got interesting towards the end of the day when the Day 2 ��bubble�� drew near. Hand for Hand started with 20 minutes left on the clock, with two minutes coming off for each hand. That meant players could make an exact calculation of whether or not they could fold into the money over the 10 hands that were remaining. Play stood still for a bit but the sharp players locked up their cash and found a bag.
The Main Event boasted a killer $1,500,000 guarantee but it wasn��t even needed as the total prize pool ballooned up to $2,490,000. The total payouts will be announced before the start of Day 2, but for now, all players that make Day 2 are in the money. There now sits a total of 237 players from all the flights that will return on Sunday at 11 a.m. for Day 2 of the Main. They will come back to 5,000/10,000/10,000 blinds but the levels will bump up to a full hour.
It remains to be seen if anyone can catch the big stack of Mazari, but there will be plenty of crushers that will make their presence known. Who will win the ring, the money, and the glory at Playground? By the end of Sunday, we will have a much clearer picture of who it could be.
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