Day 1c of Event #19: THE GIANT, a $365 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament, is in the books. Todd Louer bagged the biggest stack of the day with 730,000.
Tommy Zhu (502,000) climbed the leaderboard when he knocked out three people, including Jeff Gross, on the final hand of play with pocket sevens. Gross was a short stack after working his stack up to 100,000 and then leaving it to continue in the Pot-Limit Omaha Eight or Better tournament that started earlier today.
Niall Farrell (559,000) and Dietrich Fast (377,000) both bagged and they seemed to put a lot of stock into Ismael Bojang’s thoughts that this was the “drinking tournament.”
Bojang, Todd Brunson, Ylon Schwartz, James Woods, Joe McKeehen, and Ryan Riess are just some of the players that fired and missed on bagging a stack today.
Valentin Vornicu currently holds the biggest starting flight stack with 869,500.
Day 1d is on June 30 and Day 1e is on July 7. Those are the last two shots to try and catch Vornicu and earn a spot in Day 2 of THE GIANT.
Earlier we mentioned that Blake Stewart was celebrating his 21st birthday. He is still in Day 1c of the Giant with 41,000.
His mother, Susie, said that he would always ask if when he turned 21 if she would put him in a World Series of Poker event. She figured they would be too expensive, but when the schedule came out and she saw the $365 Giant flight on the day of Blake's birthday, she decided it was a no brainer.
Blake's tournament experience might be a little light, but it wouldn't be a big surprise to see him in other flights of the Giant should he fail to bag here in 1c.
Welcome to the third opening flight of THE GIANT at the 2017 World Series of Poker. This tournament offers players of all buy-in levels a chance at a bracelet with a buy-in of $365, the most affordable live no-limit hold’em event ever offered for a WSOP bracelet.
This is the third of five Friday night flights, with the remainder coming on June 30 and July 7. Day 2 will commence on Saturday, July 8.
Day 1a drew 1,629 entries and Day 1b had 1,230, with Valentin Vornicu bagging the biggest overall stack with 869,500. Chances are, that number won't be topped tonight, but it gives everyone here something to shoot for.
Cards are in the air at 7 p.m. with play scheduled to last eighteen 20-minute levels or down to 10 players, whichever comes first. Late registration is open for eight levels which will be approximately 10 p.m. Play is expected to end at around 2:40 a.m.
Stay tuned for coverage of tonight's flight of THE GIANT!
