Second Flight Gets Underway at Arizona State Poker Championship
Day 1a produced 816 entries and three seven-figure stacks as the field pushed toward Monday’s Day 2
The second starting flight of the 2026 Arizona State Poker Championship got underway at 10:15 a.m. on Aug. 14 at Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale. The event is still moving through its opening slate on the way to Monday’s Day 2.
As reported yesterday, Day 1a drew 816 entries, added $816,000 to the prize pool and sent 98 players on to Day 2. Gregory Brown, Nicholas Julia and Vinny Tran all bagged seven-figure stacks, with Brown leading the way at 1,354,000, Julia on 1,138,000 and Tran on 1,050,000.
Brown’s stack came after what PokerNews described as a heater, and the recap also noted that he is trying to keep a strong summer going after a second-place finish in a WPT Venetian event for $270,000 and a 62nd-place finish in the WSOP Main Event for $150,000. Julia was identified as a WSOP bracelet winner.
The opening flights are being played with 40,000 chips, blinds of 100/100 and a 100 big blind ante. Levels are 40 minutes long, players get a 15-minute break every three levels, and each flight runs until roughly 12% of the field remains so survivors can bag for Monday’s restart after locking up the minimum cash.
Unlimited reentry is available until the start of Level 10, around 5 p.m. local time, after which a late-registration stack is worth 20 big blinds. The live update on the second flight listed the buy-in as $1,130, while earlier PokerNews coverage and a July 31 F5 Poker preview had put it at $1,100.
That preview also said additional opening flights run once per day through the rest of the week, with Day 2 set for Aug. 17, Day 3 for Aug. 18 and the final table on Aug. 19.
