Day 1B Concludes with Kyle Arora Sitting Atop the 172 Survivors

The final Day 1 of this event saw Kyle Arora (pictured) finish on the top of the totem pole when the last chance saloon had closed for business. Arora stayed under the radar for most of the day but emerged as one of two players clawing for the Day 1B chip lead. He managed to fend off Logan Hewett to bag the lead, thanks to a couple of pots during the last three hands of the night, finishing with 561,500 (225 bb).

Nipping at the heels of Arora is Hewett, who finished the night with a 543,500 (217 bb) stack after a late-in-the-day heater. “I just started mashing,” said Hewett when asked how but his fortuitous end of the night. “I knew he (Lawrence Porath) was folding!” Hewett said with a smile.

Day 1A pulled in 362 entries and Day 1B crushed that number with 602 entry slips sold by the end of the night, having a total of 964 entries for the WPT Choctaw Main Event which created a guarantee shattering $3,727,780 prize pool.

There will be a total of 121 players finding the money, securing at least a min-cash worth $5,960, with the eventual champion will be pulling in $558,610 for their victory.

The full list of chip counts and the Day 2 seat draw will be available early Sunday morning. In the meantime, here are the top 10 chip counts from Day 1B:

1. Kyle Arora – 561,500 (225 bb)
2. Logan Hewett – 543,500 (217 bb)
3. Farid Jattin – 351,500 (141 bb)
4. Jimmy Lujan – 347,000 (139 bb)
5. Dapo Ajayi – 347,000 (139 bb)
6. Sage Nutt – 326,000 (130 bb)
7. Blaise Ingoglia – 325,500 (130 bb)
8. Will Pengelly – 317,000 (127 bb)
9. Jonathan Bloyen – 300,000 (120 bb)
10. Greg Jennings – 279,500 (112 bb)

A total of 260 survivors, 88 from Day 1A and 172 from Day 1B, will return tomorrow at 12:00 pm for Day 2, playing ten 60-minute levels before wrapping up. Stay tuned to WPT.com for our continuing coverage of WPT Choctaw.

Photography by Joe Giron / PokerPhotoArchive.com

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