Friday, April 14, 2023 12:50 AM Local Time
Thomas Boyden Leads Remaining 17 Players After First Starting Flight
The first starting flight of the World Series of Poker Circuit $1,700 Main Event at Grand Victoria Casino in Elgin, Illinois saw a total of 169 entries take to the felt and after a hard stop was reached with 21:08 remaining in Level 16, only 17 players bagged up chips to move on to Day 2.
Leading the way with 949,000 chips was Thomas Boyden. Boyden started the final level just above 800k and was still able to end the night on top by over double the amount Brian Altman (480,000) was able to bag.
Ending the night just behind Altman was Anthony Bahr who had a few late-night eliminations to put him third in chips with 447,000.
He Haung was involved in many big hands throughout the day and sat atop the chip counts for majority of the later levels only to end the night fourth in chips with 400,000.
Rounding out the top five Day 1a stacks is ring winner James Gregg, who got off to a slow start but started catching steam towards the later levels and was able to end the day with a 361,000 stack to take into Sunday's Day 2.
Those not as fortunate to make a Day 2 birth during the first flight included Hammond Main Event champ Dave Schonback, Richard Bai, David Sesso, Brett Apter, and reigning champ Frank Lagodich.
All those names are eligible to fire two more bullets for Friday's Day 1b flight as well as Day 1c on Saturday, if need be, with both flights starting at 11:00 a.m. local time.
The surviving players from Day 1a will come back Sunday, April 16th, along with the other survivors in a combined field for Day 2 at Noon local time.
Follow along with the WSOP.com live reporting team throughout the rest of the Main Event!
Flight A Chip Counts