December 15, 2018 (Biloxi, MS) - With the conclusion of Day 1B, the IP Biloxi Main Event has wrapped up its second, and final, starting flight.
Friday's Day 1A flight drew 141 entries while Flight B added another 241 to the mix. All in all, the Main Event attracted a total of 382 entrants, which generated a prizepool of $578,730. The payout sum will award a World Series of Poker cash to the top 45 finishers, from a $2,616 min-cash to the grand prize of $127,319 for first place.
Flight A saw 17 players survive the day, led by Chris Matters with 498,500 in chips. Flight B finished off with another 34 survivors and it is four-time ring winner Michael Lech who bagged the chip lead of Day 1B with an impressive stack of 551,000. He will begin Day 2 as the overall chip leader. Lech has $697,233 in total earnings at the World Series of Poker and will be looking to add a 5th ring to his collection. He is followed closely by Michael Chamness (546,000)
Some other notables advancing to Day 2 are ring winners Nghia Le (421,500) and Timothy Burt (75,500).
Big names who took a shot at this event in today’s flight but failed to make it through to Day 2 include defending champion and bracelet winner Kyle Cartwright, as well as ring winners Robert Hankins, Allen Kessler, David Nicholson, Russell Sullivan, Dustin Stewart, Stephen Nussrallah, Raymond Curran, Gavin Munroe, Matthew Silva and Heather Alcorn.
The remaining 51 players from the two starting flights will combine to play Day 2 on Sunday at noon and will play 10 60-minute levels before bagging up for Day 3.
Here is a look at the top 10 Chip Counts going into Day 2:
1. Michael Lech - 551,000
2. Michael Chamness - 546,000
3. Chris Matters - 489,500
4.Gregory Monk - 449,500
5.Nghia Le - 421,500
6.Elilton Gouveia - 420,000
7.Scott Stewart - 403,500
8.Matt Humphrey - 394,000
9.Johnny Landreth - 385,500
10.Jody Fayant - 351,000