Waleed Mian Opens Potomac Main Event Day 2 With Huge Lead
The 280-entry field returned 58 deep at MGM National Harbor, with Mian holding 1.185 million before the event played down to its final six.
The Potomac Summer Poker Open $3,000 Main Event got Day 2 underway at MGM National Harbor with 58 players back from a 280-entry field. Waleed Mian led the return with 1.185 million chips, a stack that was described as nearly double the rest of the field.
As covered in the Day 1b report, Mian had bagged that huge stack after the final starting flight and was the only player above seven figures. David Van Noy was second to start Day 2 with 655,000, Justin Liberto had 638,000, Kyle Lin 586,000 and Kyle Smith 565,000.
The next wave of stacks included David Kinane, a BetMGM online qualifier, with 477,000. Casey Hatmaker returned on 351,000, while Samuel Rosen and Ari Katz each had 325,000 and Nicholas Verderamo had 247,000.
The day resumed on Level 16 with blinds of 4,000/8,000 and an 8,000 big blind ante. Levels were extended to 60 minutes, with breaks after every two levels, and the plan was to play down to the final six.
Day 2 started with 35 paid spots and Faraz Jaka as the first bustout. Kyle Lin, Elia Ahmadian and Christian Harder all fell short of the money, while Thomas Barry sent Yabetse Wedeneh and James Morris out on the bubble, with Morris covered by just 1,000 chips.
Tim Pool sneaked into the money in 34th, and the cashers included Yonnas Banteamlak in 30th, Ari Katz in 28th, Michael Bohmerwald in 25th and Samuel Rosen in 20th. Dejan Ristov also turned a $25 online seat into $9,232 for a 16th-place finish.
Mian’s run ended in 12th when he lost a tens-versus-ace-queen race to Liberto. Patrick Martorella then took over from there, doubling on the first hand of the nine-handed final table with ace-king against Verderamo’s jacks before ending the night on 3.805 million.
The final-six lineup was Martorella, Phong Nguyen, Liberto, Kyle Smith, Jonathan Moritz and Chris Kiani, with Nguyen just one big blind behind on 3.75 million. MGM’s schedule has the finalists coming back to the poker room tomorrow at 1 p.m. local time, and the eventual champion is set to earn $154,006 from a $756,000 prize pool.
