You can be forgiven if you were unaware that the World Poker Tour was currently in Jacksonville, Florida for a Main Event Championship, as this will be the first-ever WPT Championship in the US that will not be televised (which obviously has a dramatic impact on the overall attendance). However, even with little fanfare, the WPT Jacksonville still managed to draw a pretty sizable crowd, perhaps due to the affordable $3,500 buy-in (which seems to be where the poker world is heading) as well as the reentry format (which the big name pros seem to love).

The tournament boasted a $500k guarantee, which was surpassed on Day 1a alone, and with a solid turnout for Day 1b the tournament the WPT may be looking at a nearly $2 million prize-pool.

The re-entry format, where players who are eliminated on Day 1a can reenter the tournament on Day 1b, attracted a number of big names in the poker world, including Florida natives Jason Mercier and 2010 November Niner John Racener, both of whom will have to cough-up another $3,500 on Saturday if they want a shot at the title!

Another 2010 November Niner is currently the chip-leader, as Matt Jarvis finished Day 1a with a stack of just over 190k chips, edging out a couple of other well-known names in Shaun Deeb and David Pham for the chip-lead.

Here is a look at the Top 10 chip counts at the end of Day 1a:

1. Matt Jarvis – 190,300

2. Eli Gomez – 181,300

3. Shaun Deeb – 174,900

4. Robert LeBeau – 170,000

5. David Pham – 165,600

6. Nick Grippo – 149,600

7. Andrew Pacifico – 141,500

8. Darryll Fish – 135,400

9. Sam Soverel – 134,000

10. David Tuthill – 108,000

With Florida’s new gaming laws enacted last year, the state has become a poker hotspot in additon to all the people playing blackjack and other casino games.

Tags: Additon, David Pham, Dramatic Impact, Fanfare, Florida Natives, Gaming Laws, Grippo, Hotspot, Jacksonville Florida, main event, Matt Jarvis, Mercier, New Gaming, Niner, Poker World, Prize Pool, Shaun Deeb, Sizable Crowd, World Poker Tour, WPT Championship

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 19th, 2011 at 10:14 am and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.