The annual 2024 $365 Bar Poker Open Championship sees its third flight begin today at 10 a.m. This exclusive, invite-only event will see players in leagues from all around the country make their way to The Golden Nugget in Las Vegas with the dreams of becoming the new Bar Poker Open Champion. This will be the ninth summer that it is held at this location. A first place prize is guaranteed $100,000 with the total payout purse landing somewhere around $400,000. A whopping 736 entrants have already made their way to the cage for this event and time will tell if the surpass last year's final number.

Leading the way is David "Domino" Muser who bagged up 1,485,000. Nathaniel McNamara bagged just behind him also from Day 1a. Two former BPO main event champions made their way to the end of the day as Rafael Jimenez (350,000) and Ian Auvil (300,000) look to carve their names deeper into BPO history with a second title. Auvil won the BPO world championship last November while Jimenez took down this very event in 2019, each player taking home $50,000 for their efforts.

Day 1a1 Top Ten Chip Counts

All entries will start with 25,000 in tournament chips and levels will be 30-minutes each on Day 1 and will increase to 45-minutes on Day 2 and the final day. There will be a 15-minute break after every four levels and each Day 1 will play down to 5% of the field. This second chance flight begins at 11 a.m today, with this being the final chance for players to secure a bag for Day 2 and for those that have already bagged a Day 2 stack, the opportunity to try their luck again and aim to bag even more tournament chips.

Any player that successfully bags chips twice will take their largest stack forward and will receive $1,500 for their efforts.

Here is a snapshot of the 2024 Bar Poker Open Championship Event:

• Players will receive 25,000 in tournament chips.
• Levels will be 30-minutes on Day 1, and 45-minutes on Day 2 onward.
• Day 1A Flight 1 and Flight 2 buy-in is $365.
• Day 1B buy-in is $365.
• On-Site registration is available until the start of level 11.
• If a player had entered any starting day and has been eliminated they may register for the subsequent starting day. Players may bag and play a subsequent flight.
• Alternates and late sign-ups will enter the tournament with a full chip stack and no obligation from it.
• 10% of each flight will reach the money with a minimum cash of $500
• Day 1 will end when the field reaches 5% rounded up. Day 2 will play until the final table is reached.
• Players that bag in any Day 1 flight may play a second chance flight and will take the highest chip stack forward. Lowest will be forfeited and player will receive $1,500 for their second bag.
• The starting blind level on Day 2 will be the lower of the final levels from all Day 1 flights.
• Day 2 will play 8-handed. Redraw at end of Day 1, and at 24 and 9 players or at the Tournament Director's discretion.
• Bar Poker Open will be funding any added money into the prize pool and all "Seat Winners" "Buy-In" portion.

Follow along at PokerNews.com throughout this event for the most current updates.

Day 1a2 of the $365 Bar Poker Open Championship Invitational saw a total of 264 entries players come out to play the second flight here that went late into the mid morning. From that starting field, only 27 made their way into the money with an even smaller number of only 14 still eligible for the $100,000 first-place prize and advancing on to Day 2 on Wednesday.

The largest stack to end the night was Jake Dennehy, who used a late-night surge to finish the day with 1,145,000. He won a big hand late with pocket aces and would not look back from there. Just behind him in second place as the only other player with over a million was Steven Morey who finished with 1,065,000.

After that, Patrick Burgon had 873,000 before the next highest stack was some distance behind, bagging nearly a full 300,000 below.

Day 1a2 Top Five Chip Counts

One of the stories of the day was Jeffrey Weinberg who was spotted having luck befall him on several occasions to end the night with chips as he said he is now cashing in the Bar Poker Open for the third consecutive year.

There is still time for players to try and make Day 2 as there is an extra Day 1 flight on Tuesday that begins at 11 a.m. and which may be larger than Day 1a2 was tonight.

The 14 players finished with 1:53 left in Level 18, with blinds at 10,000/20,000 and a 20,000 big blind ante.

PokerNews will bring you the action from the Bar Poker Open throughout the tournament.

The field is one elimination away from bagging for the night after a short stack nub stack was just eliminated.

Linda Fortier saw the bad news as she moved all in preflop and was called as she stood up and got ready to leave for the night.

Linda Fortier:
Covering opponent:

The flop came . The turn was the to hit Fortier's door card. The river was the and she sat back down with her double up.

Deven Cooper picked up kings at a bad time as he was all in preflop and at risk with them yet he was behind.

Deven Cooper:
Covering player:

The flop stayed clean for the aces as it came . The turn was the but the river came the to dramatically keep Cooper in Day 1b late in the night.

Shelby Williams was at risk with his short stack on the stone bubble and things were not looking very good for his chances to walk away with money in his pocket.

Shelby Williams:
Covering player:

The flop came to hit Williams and send him into the lead. The turn was the and the river was the to give him the double up and cause everyone else to groan in disappointment but that disappointment did not last long as there was an elimination on another table to bring everyone into the money.

The field is down to 28 players, meaning only one has to be eliminated in order for everyone else to be in the money, Hand for hand play has now begun.

Three players were in a hand on the turn as it read . Jake Dennehy bet 30,000. The next player to act jammed for just a little bit more for 39,000. The third player in the hand called the 39,000 as did Dennehy.

The river was an innocuous looking . Dennehy jammed all in which sent the remaining player in the hand into the tank. After several moments he folded what he claimed was .

Dennehy tabled the while the all in player had the and was eliminated. Dennehy moved to more than 400,000.