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Through the first half of the Poker Masters series, four players have won battles, but the outcome of the war is still to be decided. That is because the Poker Masters Purple Jacket doesn’t go to the player that started the fastest or was the most successful through the first few events of the series. The Poker Masters Purple Jacket goes to the winningest player throughout the series, meaning that the war won’t be over until the $100,000 Championship concludes this week.

When the $100,000 Championship started Monday, multiple players that had made deep Poker Masters runs through the four preliminary events were in contention for the Purple Jacket. Over the course of the next few hours, as the Day 1 field played from 35 players to the final two tables, a majority of those contenders fell and only a few survived.

Steffen Sontheimer, who was in pole position heading into the $100,000 Championship, was not in doubt of losing his place at the top of the Poker Masters Championship Standings on Day 1 but he could have played himself out of contention. Instead, he bagged a top-five stack to keep his Purple Jacket hopes alive and heading into Day 2, he is the only player from the overall top-five that is still alive.

As the only player that controls his own fate, all eyes will be on Sontheimer when Day 2 of the $100,000 Championship kicks off at 5:30 PM ET. Some other names will command attention, as Dan Smith ($192,000), Justin Bonomo ($175,500), Christian Christner ($175,000), Daniel Negreanu ($102,000), and Dan Shak ($100,000) also return for Day 2 with open Poker Masters accounts.

Yesterday’s opening $100,000 Championship session separated the Purple Jacket contenders from the pretenders and Tuesday’s Day 2 session will certainly do the same. Both play and the PokerGO stream will conclude once a Poker Masters $100,000 Championship final table is set and stay tuned to Poker Central and PokerGO for Poker Masters Championship Standings updates over the next two days.