Day 1b registration has ended with 264 entries. That means the money will be reached at 27 players and that play will end when 14 players are left.

This year's edition of the $365 Bar Poker Open Championship Invitational saw a total of 472 players come out to play the first flight here today. This set our current prizepool at $141,600 so far, and seemingly on its way to land just around $400,000 as the likely endpoint. From that starting field, only 54 made their way into the money with an even smaller number of 24, still eligible for the $100,000 first-place prize.

Leading the way is Frank "Domino" Muser who bagged up 1,485,000. Muser raked in most of his chips when he eliminated Tom Heinlein in a massive pot, propelling him into the chip lead and he held it for the rest of the tournament. Nathaniel McNamara bagged just behind him with 1,380,000 after being all-in on the bubble against Joshua Mordenti (60,000). He had run into Mordenti's aces, only to be saved by making a wheel on the river to score a massive double into the top two chip stacks. Both of them will be looking for their first BPO title.

Day 1a1 Top Ten Chip Counts

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.

Fortune did not smile on all today. Last year's runner up Ryan Surdi made the money, but found himself just short of collecting a bag at the end of the day. He will be able to join the other players in their quest to play tomorrow and find a bag then.

The 24 players finished with 7:25 left in Level 19, with blinds at 10,000/25,000 and a 25,000 big blind ante. Players who did not bag in this flight will have one more opportunity tomorrow to find a path to Day 2. Those who wish to bag again can do so as their smaller stack will be cashed out for $1,500.

Stay tuned to PokerNews for all updates on the Bar Poker Open.

The players are now on a 15-minute break. Registration and re-entry will be finished after the break and we will then know the final numbers for Day 1B.

The board was completed to read and there was a pot of around 70,000 in the middle.

Jorge "JJ" Avala moved all in for 53,000 to turn the screws to his opponent who folded after about a minute of thinking it over.

Avala flashed the as his opponent showed the to show that Avala had forced the better hand to hit the muck.

Lindsay Jeffreson called in the small blind where Ryan Surdi was forced all in and at risk in the big blind.

Ryan Surdi:
Lindsay Jeffreson:

The board ran out and the sixes full were good enough for Jeffreson to eliminate last year's second place finisher Surdi from the tournament.

Stay tuned to PokerNews for all chip counts and a full recap soon to follow.

Lindsay Jeffreson	195,000	92,000
Ryan Surdi	0	0

Action was on the turn, with the board reading . From the button, Nicholas Sims had bet 28,000 and was faced with a jam from Gony Kamal who plunged in his 84,000.

Sims considered it for quite some time, stewing it over. Eventually he folded and Kamal gathered the pot.

Gony Kamal	143,000
Nicholas Sims	127,000	-46,000

The clock has ticked down to 25 players very quickly as the field is just one player away from the end of the night.

The flop read with three players in a hand. The first player to act bet 5,000, big stack Nicholas Sims called. Jeffrey Weinberg came over the top and jammed all in for about 55,000. The first player folded and Sims called.

Jeffrey Weinberg:
Nicholas Sims:

Weinberg was ahead and would need to fade the straight. He did far more than fade as the turn came the to sew it up for him right there with quad fours to make the river meaningless and give him an important double while Sims was left to rue what could have been a huge stack in his clutches.

Nicholas Sims	173,000	130,000
Jeffrey Weinberg	112,000