Maurice Hawkins sits near the top as he searches for ring number 12.
March 2, 2019 (Hammond) - Both of the starting flights in the World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event in Hammond are now complete, and Arjun Srinivas (pictured) has emerged as the chip leader of Day 1B, and will be second overall heading into Day 2.
Srinivas started the day off slow, hovering just around average until about halfway through level nine when a player tried to push him off on the river, he stood strong with his rivered ace and called. He would would ultimately take down the pot, advancing over the six figure mark for the first time in the day and continuing his heater into the Day 1B lead by the end of the night.
The Gaithersburg, MD, native has one cash to his WSOP resume from right here in Hammond for $4,127 during last years main event and is surely looking to beat his personal best this year.
Day 1A had a total of 425 entry slips sold, with 85 players remaining by nights conclusion. The second flight saw a whopping 625 entries and when all the dust had settled there were just 119 remaining, having 204 of the 1,050 total entries making it to Day 2.
The total of 1,050 registration slips sold fell just short of the 1,094 sold in last years circuit event, but still crushed the one million prize pool that was set, accumulating a total of $1,590,750. There will be 108 places seeing sum of money with a min-cash pulling in $2,927 and the eventual winner pocketing $294,290.
The 204 players to make it through their respective Day 1, will all be battling it out to catch Peter Kelly, who finished Day 1A with 578,000 in chips and is also currently tied for third on the Casino Champion leader board. Kelly has six cashes in Hammond to date and will be looking to surpass his biggest cash in this casino to date of $15,519, when he finished 21st in the main event of the 2016/17 season.
A very well-known circuit grinder will be starting the second day near the top in Maurice Hawkins, bringing 455,000 chips with him into Day 2. Hawkins finished second on Day 1A right behind Kelly and will beginning tomorrow third overall. He is currently second on the all time ring winner list, holding 11 to his name and boasting career cashes in the WSOP of over two million dollars. Hawkins will be going into the final day, like anyone, in the hopes of taking down the massive first place prize, but will have added motivation as he can tie Valentin Vornicu atop the all time ring leader board.
Another player to build a stack is Damjan Radanov with 400,000. Radanov has been off to a hot start thus far this season, already making two main event final tables in Tunica and POTAWATOMI. He finished in sixth place each time and will be looking to improve on those finishes, as he sits in prime position for another deep run here in Hammond.
Some other impressive players advancing include Jorden Helstern (320,500), Tim Kelly (295,500), Carter Myers (286,000), Greg Himmelbrand (214,000), Eric Stocz (213,500), Charles Johnson (253,000), Heinz Schluter (166,500), Stephen Nussrallah (145,500), Mo Nuwwarah (122,000), and Frank Mageo (45,500).
The remaining players from the two starting flights will combine to play Day 2 on Sunday at 11 a.m local time. A total of 10, 60-minute levels will be played or until the final table is reached before bagging up and heading to Day 3. Play begins at level 16 with the blinds at 2,000/4,000 and a big blind ante of 4,000.
Here are the top 10 chip counts after Day 1B. For full chip counts click on the REPORTS tab, above.
1 - Peter Kelly - 578,000
2 - Arjun Srinivas - 473,000
3 - Maurice Hawkins - 455,000
4 - Bryan Skreens - 421,000
5 - Michael Hudson - 406,000
6 - Damjan Radanov - 400,000
7 - Kou Vang - 388,000
8 - Javier Figueroa - 378,500
9 - Gregory Stellatos - 357,500
10T - Mark Morris - 355,000
10T - Scotty Mio - 355,000