Isle Open Championship (Day 1B): Martinez Pacing The Field As Second Break Approaches

2017 Isle Open | Event #21
$1,500 No Limit Hold'em Isle Open Championship| $500,000 GTD
Level 5 (Blinds 200/400/50)
Total Day 1B Entries: 85

Juan Martinez (Dade City, FL) leads the field as players are few minutes out of their second break of the day, currently sitting with 130,000.

An early chip lead in a tournament such as this Isle Open Championship is much different than other events, primarily because of the generous structure.  In a tournament that has 25-30 minute levels, the climbing blinds catch up to these big stacks, as do the surrounding players in the field.  To sit with a stack of (325) blinds in this stage of an event with fifty minute levels, is almost a free pass to the bagging process.  Not only is the frequency of massive pots lower in a championship starting flight, but there just aren't enough stacks in the field that can compete (or cause significant damage).

Look at the early chip leader from yesterday (Joshua Lowing), he ended up bagging just under 70,000, from a 150,000 peak.  He was able to absorb a trio of rough levels to end the night, but will still enter Day 2 with (35) bigs.  

The early Day 1B chip leader is Juan Martinez (Dade City, FL), and while he may not have the decorated resume that others in the field do, he does have recent run good on his side.  Martinez has only two recorded results, but one of them was less than a month ago, and was worth over $20,000.  Juan bubbled the final table of the WSOP Circuit Main Event ($1,675) at Hard Rock, finishing in eleventh place ($20,001).  Martinez has over 130,000 in front of him, as players are about to head on their second break of the day.

Those still active in the field will return to Level 6, and new blinds of 250/500/75 (36,000 chip average).  There will then be two more levels played, before the next break, which is the hour long dinner break.