Four flights of the much-anticipated Colossus III are in the books, with the fifth one being played out right now.
Today's flight 1f is slated to begin at 4 p.m. local time and will be the last chance for players to spin up a stack with the hopes of taking down the guaranteed $1,000,000 first-place prize!
Players will battle it out for 18 levels, lasting 30 minutes each. Registration will remain open until the end of Level 6, with one reentry per player during the registration period.
After the close of registration in flight 1e, the total entries has hit 14,131. Here is a breakdown of the entries for all flights thus far:
Flight
Entries
A
2,756
B
1,982
C
3,102
D
2,324
E
3,967
Flight 1a has been the biggest so far, but it is very possible that a 1f will see a surge of players trying their hardest to make it through to Day 2.
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More and more familiar faces have found their way into this last flight of the Colossus III, including the chatty William Kassouf.
Upon passing by his table, he was joking with the players and asked to buy the button. After being reminded that he can't buy the button in a tournament, another player joked with him and said, "They made a rule about stalling because of you, and here you are, still stalling", he laughed.
Jessica Dawley raised to 1,700 from under the gun, and Eric Larson three-bet to 4,300. Action folded back around to Dawley, and she moved all in for 9,000. Larson shrugged his shoulders and said, "I call."
Dawley tabled , and Larson revealed for a coin flip.
The flop came , and Dawley still needed an ace or a king to improve. The turn was the , and Dawley was drawing dead to the on the river.
Action folded around to Kelly Winterhalter in the cutoff, and she moved all in for about 13,500. The player in the small blind moved all in over top, and Aaron Massey, who appeared to have lost a big pot in the hand before, blindly moved all in from the big blind for his remaining 1,825 chips.
Winterhalter tabled , the small blind then showed , and Massey slowly peeled over . The entire table erupted in laughter, and Massey stood up in shock after waking up to kings after being all in blind. Both Massey and Winterhalter were at risk, with the small blind having both of them well covered.
The board ran out , and Massey tripled up to scoop the main pot, while Winterhalter was eliminated and the small blind raked in the bigger side pot.
As is customary on the bubble, all of the dealers stand up when they are finished dealing a hand, while the remaining dealers stay seated if there is an all in and a call at their table. In the last 45 minutes, there were 25 hands in which there was an all in and a call. Of those, 21 hands in a row did not have a single bustout. All players survived.
By hand 22, Johnson Nguyen called his opponent's all in, and when the tournament staff arrived at his table, he revealed . His opponent tabled , and the dealer ran the board, which came out . The bubble finally burst.
There were three more all ins to determine the order of payouts should another player hit the rail, but they all survived.
All remaining players are in the money, guaranteed a payout of at least $833.
Bryce Burt shipped his 60,000-chip stack in the middle from late position and Maria Ho called for her remaining 35,000 on the button.
Ho tabled while Burt showed for a coin flip.
The flop came and Burt caught one of his over cards to take the lead. The turn was the and the river was the , sending Ho to the rail towards the end of the night.
The final flight of the Colossus III is in the books, wrapping up six flights totaling 18,053 entries. Ardavan Yazdi bagged the lead with 588,000 chips, and leads the remaining 143 players who moved on to Day 2 from flight 1F. Sitting second in chips is WPT Legends of Poker Champion Harry Arutyunyan, sitting on 504,000, with Jordan Polk rounding out the top three with 487,000 chips.
Yazdi has amassed over $644,000 in live recorded cashes, with a single win in 2007 in the Los Angeles Legends of Poker $5,000 Main Event for $188,125. He bested the likes of Barry Greenstein and David Pham at the final table, and has several notable final tables on his resume.
Sunday's final flight attracted 3,923 entries, slightly less than the 3,966 entries from flight 1E earlier in the day, and more than any of the first four flights.
Interestingly enough, the top three from the evening flight also fall within the top five counts across all six flights.
Here is a look at the top five stacks going into Day 2 on Monday:
Place
Player Name
Chip Count
1
Ardavan Yazdi
588,000
2
Thomas Boivin
538,000
3
Harry Arutyunyan
504,000
4
Jordan Polk
487,000
5
Newton Deleon
433,000
Here is a look at the breakdown of entries across all six flights:
Flight
Entries
A
2,756
B
1,982
C
3,102
D
2,324
E
3,966
F
3,923
Total Entries: 18,053
Day 2 resumes Monday, June 5th at 2:00 p.m. local time. Play will last 10 levels with blinds increasing to 60 minutes in duration. There will be a break every two levels, with a scheduled 60-minute dinner break after the sixth level of the day. Day 3 is on Tuesday, June 6th at 2:00 p.m. followed by Day 4 on Wednesday, June 7th at 2:00 p.m. where a winner will be crowned.
The Colossus III is paying out a whopping $1,000,000 first-place prize, along with the coveted gold WSOP bracelet. Last year's winner was Ben Keeline, earning himself a million dollars and adding a bracelet to go alongside his WSOP circuit ring. Keeline bested a field of 21,613 entries after four days of play.
Notable players to make it through to Day from this flight included Darren Rabinowitz (393,000), Matt Affleck (272,000), Ralph Massey (219,000), Ryan Laplante (155,000), Cate Hall (138,000), and Jeff Gross (28,000).
With the field being so massive, many familiar faces fired this flight but didn't make it through, including Maria Ho, Kristen Bicknell, Joe Cada, Kenny Hallaert, Loni Harwood, Jessica Dawley, Jamie Kerstetter, William Kassouf, Upeshka De Silva, and Ben Zamani.
There are three more days to go before a millionaire is crowned, so keep following along as PokerNews continues to bring all of the action throughout the rest of this series.