National Championship Day 1A: Getting Ready to Roll

Golden Nugget ballroom is ready to go

The preliminary events are in the books and the 2017 Bar Poker Open National Championship is set to kick off at 11am with a packed house and a fun-loving group of players.

But for now, the tables are empty and waiting for the kickoff.

The entrant count is clicking steadily up to 500 with less than an hour before action gets underway. Players are heading to the Golden Nugget ballroom from more than 40 poker leagues around the country all aiming to become the next BPO National Champion. We have tournament champions, online qualifiers, and specially invited players that include the top ranked grinders from each league.

Players will sit down to 25,000 deep stacks and the tournament will run 30-minutes levels throughout the event. Late registration is open until the start of Level 5 around 1:15pm but players cannot re-enter today’s flight if they are eliminated, Flight B is open to those eliminated players who wish to take another shot at the National Championship. There is a 45-minute dinner break scheduled at 6:30pm and they will return to play out the day.

Approximately 10% of the starting field will be in the money with a min-cash earning $500. Play will come to an end when 5% of the players remain and they will move to Day 2 on Wednesday. This is a best-stack-forward tournament and players who bag chips in Flight A can return tomorrow for Flight B for a chance to build a bigger bag. If anyone advances two stacks, the biggest stack will be put in play at the start of Day 2 and that player will pick up a Day 2 min-cash for the smaller stack.

We expect a fun, full day of poker and the room is buzzing long before cards go in the air.