Javier Zarco bags six-figure lead in WPT Seminole RRPO Day 1B

Saturday saw Day 1B of the $3,500 World Poker Tour Seminole Rock ‘N’ Roll Open Championship attract 738 entrants to the felt. Following ten levels of action, the field was trimmed to 247 advancing players with Javier Zarco leading the field.

Zarco earned a Golden Passport to the ClubWPT Gold $5 million freeroll during the WPT World Championship for being the day’s chipleader.

Zarco has a six-figure lead over the field with 558,500 and Al Norman sits in a distant second with 430,500. Day 1A chipleader Frank Stepuchin bagged 394,000 comparatively, which will land him in the sixth spot today.

Frank Funaro, Erik Seidel, Andy Frankenberger, 2014 WSOP Main Event champ Martin Jacobson, Jeremy Becker, Christian Harder and Josh Reichard all put chips in the bag to move on to Day 2. Chance Kornuth, Sean Deeb, Will Failla and Mike Wang also survived to play on Sunday.

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Wall-to-wall players

The Championship field totaled 1,427 entrants, with Day 1A drawing 696 and advancing 238 players to Day 2. Sunday will see 485 players return from the two flights.

The field generated a prizepool of $4.59 million to pay out the top 180 finishers. The min-cash comes in at $6,400, six-figure payouts kick in at 7th place, and the winner earns $662,200 along with a seat in the WPT World Championship.

Former POY returns for fun

Frankenberger took the poker world by storm in 2010 and won WPT Player of the Year in his first year of playing seriously. He had a whirlwind career that eventually led him back to Wall Street and he was able to sneak away over Thanksgiving to play cards.

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ClubWPT qualifier Caren Walsh didn’t survive her Day 1 flight but already considered the trip a success by winning her into the tournament.

Traveling players are used to seeing Chad Roedersheimer running tournaments and seating players, not trying to bust them. The Cincinnati native jumps on the other side of the felt when he can and he gets paid off a lot.

Cards hit the air promptly at noon on Sunday and they’ll play another ten, 60-minute levels. They’ll take a break every two levels and have the same 90-minute dinner break.

Top 5 chip stacks