John O'Neal Leads Day 1A Of CPPT Bestbet Jacksonville Main EventJacksonville Native Leads 24 Day 1A Survivors, Will Return On Sunday At Noon For Day 2 |
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Thanks to a massive pot towards the end of the night, John O’Neal finished Day 1A of the Card Player Poker Tour bestbet Jacksonville $1,100 no-limit hold’em main event with the chip lead.
In level 13, O’Neal eliminated Edward Dixon to propel him to the top of the chip counts. O’Neal flopped bottom set against Dixon’s top pair with top kicker. O’Neal check-raised the flop and shoved the turn. Dixon called and was drawing dead to the river. That pot propelled O’Neal to 280,000 and he finished the day with 303,000 in chips.
He is joined at the top of the chip counts by Shawn Bowen (233,000), Thad McNulty (226,000), Dale James (202,000) and Josh Gerjevic (198,000).
Bowen held the chip lead near the end of the day after winning a huge pot with the elimination of top pro TK Miles. He lost a few hands in the last couple of orbits, which ultimately led to him finishing the day second in chips.
The first of two starting flights drew 140 entries and by the end of the scheduled 14 levels, only 24 remained. With $135,800 already in the prize pool, the field is well on its way to smashing the $200,000 guarantee.
Other notables to survive the day include Jose De La Cruz (182,000), Derek Bowers (177,500), 13-time World Series of Poker Circuit ring winner Maurice Hawkins (177,500), Brett Bader (121,000), Ben Scrogins (111,000) and Perry Johnston (95,000).
The players who were fortunate enough to get through the day will return on Sunday at noon for Day 2 when the field will play down to a final table, which will be live streamed on Monday afternoon.
Not everybody was lucky enough to end the day with chips. Defending champion Ben Diebold, Dave DiBernardi, five-time World Series of Poker Circuit ring winner Jeffrey Trudeau, Hunter Cichy, Eddy Mroczkowski, Peter Le and Mario De La Puente all joined Miles and Dixon as Day 1A casualties.
Those that didn’t survive the day will have another shot on Saturday to earn a spot in the Day 2 field. Day 1B kicks off at noon on Saturday and they will play the same schedule as 1A did on Friday.
Registration will be open with unlimited re-entries until the start of level 10, which will be around 7:30 p.m. They will play 14, 40-minute levels before bagging and tagging chips for the day.
Here are the full chip counts from Day 1A:
Rank | Player | Chip Count |
1 | John O’Neal | 303,000 |
2 | Shawn Bowen | 233,000 |
3 | Thad McNulty | 226,000 |
4 | Dale James | 202,000 |
5 | Joshua Gerjevic | 198,000 |
6 | Dustin Nelson | 193,000 |
7 | James Brown | 189,000 |
8 | Jose De La Cruz | 182,000 |
9 | Derek Bowers | 177,500 |
10 | Maurice Hawkins | 177,500 |
11 | Yi Li | 167,000 |
12 | Tan Nguyen | 150,000 |
13 | Michael Booth | 141,000 |
14 | Brett Bader | 121,000 |
15 | Ben Scrogins | 111,000 |
16 | Ronnie Givens | 100,000 |
17 | Perry Johnston | 95,000 |
18 | Nestor Aguilero | 93,000 |
19 | Mark Wiser | 92,000 |
20 | TJ Doty | 86,000 |
21 | Mark Linsenbergler | 83,000 |
22 | Larry St. John | 77,800 |
23 | Ken Taffaro | 64,000 |
24 | Talesh Patel | 47,000 |