Second Flight to the Main Starts Boarding at 11 AM Friday

Event #12: $2,300 NLH Main Event ($2050 + $250)

The first flight to the Main Event has landed with 22 players still on board, from a starting field of 188. There were 29 paid spots today, and they might have bagged early if they got to 19 players, but they went the distance and bagged up more than 10% of the field after 17 levels.

Day 1b starts at 11 AM on Friday, and everyone will be looking to beat Ruoxiao Shi, who bagged the 1a lead with 873k. Previous winner of the Main here in Calgary, Nicholas Teeuwen, has stack #2 from the 1a players, so there’s a solid chance for our first repeat Main Event winner at WSOP-C Calgary.

1b is, of course, a redo of 1a with a bigger field. The 1a field was a bit smaller than expected, but that isn’t unusual for a 1a. They got 188 entries on 1a for more than $385k in prizes, and I think it’s still a decent bet for this to be the biggest prize pool ever, though my optimism is somewhat tempered by the 1a result.

Players get 40k to start their day, and entries are open for 12 levels. For players who max-late reg during the break after Level 12 (~8:30), they’ll sit down with 10 bigs for Level 13. Players getting in at 11 AM will have 40 minutes of 200bb play, in theory.

Once entries are closed, they’ll play to 10% or the end of Level 17, whichever comes first. However, since 1a played into the money, players in 1b & 1c should be aware that those flights MUST at least play into the money. That means if the field is still higher than 15% at the end of Level 17, they’ll keep playing until they hit that 15% cashing mark, no matter how long it takes.

Once again, I have other priorities first on Friday. Day 2 of the Flip & Go runs, so I’ll be watching that one most closely. After that, my focus should be on the one-day PLO Bounty starting at 6 PM, and that one could go quite late, so it seems unlikely I’ll get to watch much of 1b of the Main. I will try to keep up with numbers and prizes, and I fully expect Friday’s flight to put this game over $1 million.

Day 1a Stacks