Event 8 (Flight 1A): Ashkenazi Bags Flight 1A Chip Lead

"Battles At The Beach"

Event 8 ($360 No Limit Hold'em $200,000 GTD)

Level 14 (Blinds 1,200/2,400/400)

Total Flight 1A Entries: 151

Ido Ashkenazi (Queens, NY)

Ido Ashkenazi (Queens, NY) made the most of the final two hours of play, starting his steady rise to the top during Level 11.  He won a pot during that level to chip up to 115,000, and never looked back from there.  It looked as if there was going to be some drama with the "race," but Ashkenazi won that key pot that eliminated Timothy Kegel, and essentially gave Ido the chips needed to coast for the rest of the flight.  TJ Shulman made a valiant effort to catch Ido over the final two levels of the day, but ended up falling short of the $1,500 Main Event seat.  Once the bagging process has concluded, a full list of official chip counts will be posted.

This will conclude today's "live blogged coverage," but followers of the blog can check back for chip counts from both this flight, and Flight 1B (which began at 6:00pm).