Arizona State Poker Championship Reaches Day 1c With 1,767 Entries
Gregory Brown led the way on 1.35 million chips as the third starting flight opened at Talking Stick Resort.
The 2026 Arizona State Poker Championship reached Day 1c at Talking Stick Resort with 1,767 entries recorded through the first two starting flights and 212 players already bagged for Monday’s Day 2. Gregory Brown held the biggest stack so far at 1,354,000 chips, and only five players had moved past the seven-figure mark.
As reported yesterday, Day 1a drew 816 entries and sent 98 players on to Day 2, with Brown already among the biggest stacks. The 20th annual championship is still playing out in Scottsdale, and Brandon Mitchell returned as the defending champion after winning last summer for $525,700 over 3,546 runners.
According to PokerNews, players began with 40,000 chips and 100/100 blinds with a 100 big blind ante, with 40-minute levels and a 15-minute break every three levels. Each flight allowed unlimited reentries until the start of Level 10 around 5 p.m. local time, when a late-registration stack was worth 27 big blinds. The event preview described the tournament as a $1,100 No-Limit Hold’em event with a $3 million guarantee, while the Day 1c structure page listed the buy-in at $1,130.
Day 1c was scheduled to deal cards at 10:15 a.m. local time. Play continued until roughly 12% of the field remained, at which point survivors bagged for the Monday restart already in the money. Day 1b had produced the earliest finish so far, ending with 5:40 left in Level 16 at 4,000/8,000 blinds.
