February 18 2012, Brett Collson

The inaugural DeepStacks Poker Tour Western New York Poker Championship has reached a final table after two days of play at the Seneca Niagara Casino in Niagara Falls, New York. The tournament began with 217 players, including several high-profile members of Team DeepStacks, but only six will return for the televised final table on Sunday.

Day 2 began with 42 players, and a whirlwind of early eliminations left only 25 players on the money bubble in the third level of the day. That’s when the biggest hand of the day took place. With several small stacks simply trying to squeeze into the money, the two biggest stacks in the room collided for the biggest pot of the tournament to that point.

Chip leader Kyaw Naing raised to 15,000 from the cutoff and Lou Procopio three-bet to 62,000 from the small blind. Action folded back to Naing, who made the call, and the dealer rolled out a flop. Naing checked and Procopio took his time before betting 150,000. Naing check-raised all-in and Procopio stood up and announced a call.

Naing
Procopio:

Naing needed a heart to burst the bubble and take an overwhelming lead over the rest of the field. However, the turn brought the and the river was the , giving Procopio around 850,000 – more than double the stack of any other player. Naing was left with just 82,500, and he was sent home as the bubble on the very next hand.

Michael Mizrachi was the biggest story entering the day. The man with more the $12 million in live tournament earnings had the chip lead when play began, but “The Grinder” had a turbulent ride at the feature table all afternoon. Mizrachi snuck his way into the money, but he was eliminated in 14th place when his was bested by Mike Crystal’s .

Procopio used the chips he won on the money bubble to run over his opponents the rest of the day. He also got the help of a timely turn card in a big hand against Jonathan Dimmig. Dimmig got his 300,000-plus chip stack all-in preflop with against Procopio’s , but the board gave an animated Procopio a set of kings. Procopio is second in chips entering the final table, trailing only William Vogel.

Vogel climbed past Procopio for the lead on the final hand of the night. Vogel and Husni Aga both checked the flop, but when Vogel made it 25,000 on the turn, Aga called. The river seemed innocent enough, but Aga decided to shove his last 185,000 in the middle. After about two minutes in the tank, Vogel called with , picking off Aga’s bluff to secure the final table.

Every member of the final table is from Upstate New York, making the tournament a true Western New York Poker Championship. Joining Vogel and Procopio at the final table will be Tom Krol, Nicholas Goetz, Michael Wachowski, and last year’s runner-up at the DeepStacks Seneca Poker Open, Steve Przybyl.

Here’s a look at the table draw and chip counts of the final six:

The final table kicks off Sunday at 1400 EST (1900 GMT) in the Bear’s Den. Get all the updates right here on PokerNews.

Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.

Follow Brett Collson on

February 18 2012, Marty Derbyshire

The inaugural event on the newly minted DeepStacks Poker Tour kicked off Friday, drawing 217 players to the Seneca Niagara Casino in Western New York.

DeepStacks Pros like Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, Karina Jett, Adam Levy and Randal Flowers joined some of the area’s top grinders to help create a $281,232 prize pool that will pay 24 spots with $71,827 reserved for first.

But the day truly belonged to the man they call “The Grinder.”

Two-time WPT title and WSOP bracelet winner Michael Mizrachi started slow, but quickly got things on track, getting the best of his opponents in pot after pot, including cracking fellow DeepStacks Pro Matusow’s aces to bust him and crest the 400,000 mark.

He faltered slightly as the day wore on, but still held onto 338,500 in chips and the lead as play ended with 42 remaining.

Jett, Levy, and Flowers joined Matusow and the rest of the DeepStacks Team on the rail as the field was cut down to size through 13 levels of play.

Last year’s Seneca Niagara DeepStacks Poker Championship winner Randy Pfeifer returned to defend his title and got off to a solid start, bagging 281,500 in chips at the end of the day.

He sits in the top ten with other big stacks including Sammy Smith (303,500), Andy Spears (301,000), Kyaw Naing (282,000) and Larry Carney (233,500) heading into Day 2.

The plan is to play down from 42 to the final table of six on Saturday, beginning at 1400 EST (1900 GMT), and you can follow all of the action on on PokerNews’ Live Reporting pages.

Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.