Ben Wilinofsky (pictured) has been laying very low in the poker world for the past couple of years, but the man with nearly $1.4 million in live tournament earnings was back in the headlines after Day 1 of the Season XV World Poker Tour Fallsview Poker Classic C$5,000 Main Event. Sporting tied-back long hair and an epic beard, Wilinofsky worked his way to the top of the leaderboard and bagged up the chip lead after the opening day of play in Niagara Falls.
The combination of Wilinofsky’s new look and laying low in the poker world might come of a surprise to some to see him back on top of a leaderboard.
“It is alright,” Wilinofsky deadpanned. “I stopped being relevant three years ago.”
Keeping rather quiet while he built a stack throughout the day, Wilinofsky won a substantial pot on one of the final hands of the night to surge to the top and earn the honor of chip leader with 275,900.
As Wilinofsky explained, he does not travel for tournaments anymore, but he does consider himself semi-retired. Few in poker would consider the Vancouver resident irrelevant. He is a European Poker Tour title holder and a WPT final tablist, taking third in the WPT Vienna Main Event back in Season X. He also has a long list of online tournament scores to his name.
Unlike some who keep the grind up for decades though, Wilinofsky made the decision to put his mental health first and put poker on the back burner last year. He still finds time to play a little though, especially when it is coupled with other activities like visiting friends and family.
Wilinofsky and his wife traveled to Toronto to visit family and some poker friends like Anton Wigg to make the trip about more than just a tournament. Granted, after today and a strong start, there is a chance the tournament is going to end up being a big part of the Western Canadian’s trip west.
Wilinofsky is likely to be the top dog of the Day 1 survivors in the Season XV WPT Fallsview Main Event, which was one for the record books. With 489 entries in the C$5,000 buy-in event, the tournament smashed last year’s field size of 423 entries to be the largest Fallsview Poker Classic Main Event in WPT history. Of the 489 entries, a total of 148 bagged and tagged and will be back in action at 12 p.m. ET on Thursday.
One player who thought his tournament was going to be done for this evening was Jason James, who was knocked down to just six big blinds before rallying to end with a big stack of 213,400. James summed up his crazy journey once he broke to a new table late in the day quite succinctly:
“I got to the table with six big blinds,” James said. “I won queen-jack to ace-eight, then I shoved over a couple of raises and chipped up to 40,000. I won a flip, then knocked a player out, and ended with 213,000.”
Easy, right?
James and Wilinofsky are joined near the top of the counts by two-time WPT championDarren Elias (200,000), local college principal Mark Toulouse (262,700), Carlo Alteri (241,000), and David Cloutier (236,700), who already has two Fallsview Casino WPT final tables to his name.
Other notables to survive the day include Aaron Massey (196,200), Henry Tran (189,700), reigning Fallsview Poker Classic Champ David Ormsby (172,500), and WPT Champions Club members Eric Afriat and Olivier Busquet.
Other notable names did not fare so well in the single re-entry, single starting flight event. The list of eliminated players for the day includes Season XIII WPT Player of the Year Anthony Zinno, Champions Club members Nenad Medic, Dylan Wilkerson, James Mackey, Dietrich Fast, Marvin Rettenmaier, and Mike Watson, and recent winner of his third CAD$1,000 prelim event at Fallsview, Mike Leah. The field also lost two Greenwood brothers, Sam and Max, but Luke Greenwood survived and will be back in action for Day 2.
A full list of Day 2 chip counts and seat assignments will be published as soon as it becomes available. Play will resume at 12 p.m. ET on Thursday. Until then, here is a look at the unofficial top five:
1. Ben Wilinofsky – 275,900
2. Mark Toulouse – 262,700
3. Carlo Alteri – 241,000
4. David Cloutier – 236,700
5. Jason James – 213,400
Stay tuned to WPT.com for more coverage of the Season XV WPT Fallsview Poker Classic Main Event.