The fourth day of the PokerStars North American Poker Tour Las Vegas festival saw the highest turnout and the wildest action yet, with more than 500 players entering the Main Event across the final two Day 1 flights organized on Wednesday.
Pros and recreational players showed up in force for Days 1E and 1F of the NAPT Main Event, taking their last opportunities to participate in the spectacle and make their way into Day 2.
The opportunity was best used by PokerStars Ambassador Parker Talbot, who emerged as the chip leader on Day 1E after amassing 681,000 in chips, significantly more than chip leaders from previous Day 1 flights.
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As expected, we saw plenty of big names in Main Event attendance on Wednesday, with the likes of Anthony Zinno, Brandon Cantu, Scott Ball, David Peters, Jesse Lonis, and Tom Orpaz only a few of the many survivors who will hit the tables for Day 2 action today.
With registration finally closed, the NAPT Main Event broke the $1.5 million guarantee by $175,000, with 1095 entries made across the six starting flights and a prize pool of $1,675,350 to be split by 159 players.
The official first-place prize stands at a massive $268,945, and you will have a chance to see who takes it down in real-time as PokerStars begins streaming all Main Event action tomorrow as Day 3 kicks off.
Parker Talbot Leads Players into Day 2 of the NAPT Main Event
The first NAPT Main Event in 12 years saw a relatively modest attendance for the early Day 1 flights. Things turned around in a big way on Wednesday, as a total of 562 entries were made across the two starting days, allowing the overall prize pool to eclipse the guarantee.
While Day 1A chip leader Dongwoo Ko (434,500) was able to retain his chip lead across the first four starting days, the massive playing field of 449 in Day 1E allowed both Parker Talbot (681,000) and Andrew Moreno (492,000) to overcome him and enter Day 2 as the top two stacks.
With a total of 113 entries in the turbo-structured Day 1F, Anthony Zinno emerged as the chip leader with 229,000 chips, followed by Hye Park with 160,000.
Today, 252 players return to the Resorts World Las Vegas poker room, where the money bubble will burst and see 159 players guaranteed a payout of at least $2625.
As we await further Main Event news from Resorts World, here is a look at the top 10 stacks going into Day 2 action:
| Position | Player | Country | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Parker Talbot | USA | 681,000 |
| 2 | Andrew Moreno | USA | 492,000 |
| 3 | Dongwoo Ko | Canada | 435,000 |
| 4 | Lily Lofty | USA | 420,500 |
| 5 | Boen Bachman | USA | 363,000 |
| 6 | Ping Liu | USA | 339,000 |
| 7 | Jeremy Eyer | USA | 327,000 |
| 8 | Kyna England | USA | 316,000 |
| 9 | Joseph Tehan | USA | 311,000 |
| 10 | Landon Tice | USA | 300,500 |
Furth and Teston Take Down Side Events
Away from the Main Event, two further side events played down to a winner on Wednesday, with $250 NLH and $5300 PLO crowning their champions.
The affordable $250 NLH event with unlimited re-entries attracted 159 players and created a prize pool of $34,980, with 23 players making the money.
When all was said and done, Benjamin Teston overcame the USA-dominated final table and took home $6193, the same as second-placed Michael Disman, as the two players reached a deal during heads-up action.
On the more high-stakes end of the spectrum, 41 players paid the $5,300 buy-in for PLO Event #16, which created a prize pool of $205,000, eventually split among the top 6 finishers.
American Caleb Furth overcame Joao Simao from Brazil in a heads-up match to take down the $68,605 first-place prize, while the likes of Dan Shak and David Coleman also made the final table and cashed the event.
Apart from the return of the Main Event, today also marks the start of the $550 PokerStars Cup, another massive event with $300,000 in guaranteed prizes and a playing field that’s likely to eclipse all others barring the Main Event.
Mixed games pros can also look forward to the $5300 8-Game event kickoff, which is expected to see a turnout of a few dozen mixed games aficionados who will demonstrate their all-encompassing poker skills over two days of 8-Game action.
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Get Ready for NAPT Live Streams
Today marks the last day of NAPT action, which will not be available to the fans on PokerStars media channels, as the NAPT Main Event live streaming starts tomorrow with Day 3 action and continues all the way through the end of the event.
PokerStars will also be live streaming the $5300 NAPT High Roller, which means you will get a chance to see some of the best players in the world play in one of the highest stakes events of the festival in real-time.
You can expect live streaming to start with the beginning of Day 3 action in the Main Event tomorrow, with the remaining players likely already in the money by the time the first stream kicks off.
