WPT: North American Poker Championships Day 1A

The first of three day-one flights in the 2008 World Poker Tour North American Poker Championship took place on Friday at Fallsview Casino Resort in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Day 1A attracted 125 players, who ponied up the $10,000 CDN entry fee, and they played only five levels to complete the day. At the end of those five levels there were 76 players that remained in contention, thanks to triple starting stacks of 30,000, and a generous tournament structure.

The notables who started the day, but did not survive until the final bell included, Shaun Deeb, Nenad Medic, Quinn Do, Isaac Baron, former NAPC tournament director Jason March, Darren Nelson, Chad Brown, Cory Carroll, last year’s fifth-place finisher Kofi Farkye, and Annette Obrestad, who fell on the last hand of the night when her A-6 was dominated by the A-J of Roy Winston.

Many professionals still remain in the hunt as well. In addition to those mentioned in the top 10 below, a collection of players that will be looking to add some chips to their stacks on day 2 include, the aforementioned Winston, Card Player Player of the Year front-runner Erik Seidel, 2006 NAPC Champion Soren Turkewitsch, Canuck Gavin Smith, Matt Keikoan, Bill Gazes, and young guns Luke Staudenmaier, Matt Kay, and Tim West.

Hand of the day:

With 5,000 in the pot and 5 4 3 sitting on the board, Christian Harder opened the action for 3,525 and Thomas Haidinger raised to 8,000. Harder reraised 40,000 and then Haidinger went into the tank…for 15 minutes, before he finally realized action was on him and made the call. Haidinger showed down 6 2 for a flopped straight, and Harder turned over 6 6. The turn and river fell 9 10 to give Harder the pot and eliminate Haidinger near the end of the day.

Day 1B takes place today, with Day 1C following on Sunday. Each of these days will play the prescribed five, 90-minute levels of poker, and all of the survivors will combine for day 2 on Monday, Oct. 13. Prize pool information will be released on Sunday.

Here is a look at the Day 1A leader board:

J.C. Tran: 159,300
John Mori: 127,600
Chirstian Harder: 125,400
Dario D’Agostino: 123,400
Brian England: 122,000
Matt Matros: 106,900
David Scott: 103,400
Robert Robbins: 100,100
Aerial Noseworthy: 99,300
Joe Sebok: 84,700

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