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NIPUN JAVA SEEKING ANOTHER BIKE MAIN EVENT RING
2014 WSOP Circuit Bike Main Event Champion Leads 145 Day 2 Returnees
Bell Gardens, Ca. (March 13, 2017) - Both starting flights of the World Series of Poker Circuit main event at the Bicycle Casino are in the books and a previous champion is leading the way. Nipun Java (pictured), who won this exact event in 2014 is taking the chip lead into the penultimate day of the event.
Java just edged out Chang-Le Lin for the biggest stack of Day 1A with 266,000 to Le's 258,000. He went on a ridiculous run in the final 40-minute level of the night, adding over 160,000 chips to the 107,000 he began the level with. Day 1A produced the six biggest stacks heading into Day 2. Joe Tushnet (240,500), Levon Khachatryan (223,500), Erik Nason (218,000) and Joe Serock (206,000) round out the six biggest stacks from both Day 1A and overall.
Joe Nalbandyan finished with the heaviest bag of anybody from Day 1B. He bagged 200,500 and is the only other person to crack 200,000 in chips. Neil Ho, who won the $365 no-limit texas hold'em six-max ring earlier in the series was the second biggest stack of the second flight, finishing just behind Nalbandyan with 198,500.
Day 1A of the $1,675 no-limit hold'em event drew 304 entries on Saturday and Day 1B drew another 374 entries on Sunday. There were 55 survivors from Day 1A and 90 survivors from Day 1B. There are 678 entries and a over a $1 million prizepool thus far with at least 145 players still in the hunt, but registration doesn't close until the cards get in the air on Monday for Day 2. When cards get in the air on Monday, the prizepool will be finalized and the payouts will be released.
Here is a look at the top 10 chip stacks heading into Day 2:
- Nipun Java - 266,000
- Chang-Le Lin - 258,000
- Joe Tushnet - 240,500
- Levon Khachatryan - 223,500
- Erik Nason - 218,000
- Joe Serock - 206,000
- Joe Nalbandyan - 200,500
- Neil Ho - 198,500
- MIchael Nia - 195,500
- Brian Ray - 193,500
A complete list of chip counts can be found in the reports tab in the live updates.
Other notables that have survived one of the two flights so far include Marco Johnson (176,500), William Vo (157,500), Anthony Spinella (147,500), Matt Stout (146,000), James Romero (130,000), Phil Laak (128,500), Dylan Wilkerson (105,500), Simeon Naydenov (103,000), Dimitar Danchev (95,000), Kyle Cartwright (92,000), Ryan Feldman (86,500), Bart Hanson (81,500), Jesse Yaginuma (71,000), Carlos Mortensen (62,000), Maria Ho (44,500), and Steve Sung (28,000).
Poker Hall of Famer Billy Baxter, bracelet winners Bryan Piccioli, Ben Keeline and Mike Leah, eight-time ring winner Valentin Vornicu, nine-time ring winner Alex Masek and 2006 WSOP Player of the Year Jeff Madsen are just a few of the top pros that were unable to survive a starting day.
When play kicks off on Monday, the levels will be 60 minutes in length for the duration of the tournament and making the money will be on everybody's mind with the money bubble expected to burst early in the day.
The survivors of Monday's action will come back on Tuesday at 1 p.m. and play down to a winner.
