Adler, Smith & Song Among Big Stacks at End of Day 1a in $5,300 The Return
Day 1a of the $5,300 The Return as part of The Return - A Borgata Championship Event in Atlantic City has wrapped up after ten levels of play and saw South Carolina's Adam Adler bagging the chip lead with a stack of 366,500, followed closely by Texan Dusti Smith with 355,500.
Not far behind is Stephen Song, who as the tournament played out was officially named both the overall and Mid-Major 2022 Player of the Year.
And Song, who ended the day with 323,000, isn't the only 2022 POY who bagged on Day 1a. GPI Female POY Cherish Andrews will bring a stack of 135,500 into Day 2.
The first of two starting flights of the $3 million guaranteed event attracted 562 runners and only about a quarter of those players made it to the end of the day. Adler is looking to continue his run-good into the new year after finishing fourth in the World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship in Las Vegas in December for $1.6 million. The fifth-place finisher of that event, Frank Funaro, also found a bag and will enter the second day of play with 249,500.
Those are hardly the only notables who survived the day. Other big names include 2021 GPI POY Chance Kornuth, Jesse Lonis, Adam Hendrix, Alex Foxen, Kristen Foxen, Chris Brewer, Nick Palma, Blake Bohn, Dan Zack and Ryan Dodd, who less than 24 hours prior pulled the single $250,000 bounty in $2,200 Mystery Bounty Event.
There were plenty of highlights throughout the ten levels of play on Day 1, including during the first level when Michael Wang made quads against the trips of Martin Zamani to leave the Floridian with crumbs. But Zamani climbed back and managed to bag a decent stack ahead of Day 2.
Another highlight was a serendipitous moment when World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champs Joe McKeehen and Ryan Riess were seated side-by-side, undoubtedly bad news for the player seated to their right. McKeehen fell about halfway through the day while the 2013 champ bagged a stack of 72,500.
One more starting flight remains and it will play out on Jan. 5 at 11 a.m. local time and will follow the same structure as Day 1a. The survivors of both starting flights will combine for Day 2 on Jan. 6 as the four-day event gets closer to naming a winner.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team is here in Atlantic City and will continue covering the $5,300 The Return and other events at The Return - A Borgata Championship Event.
on a board of 
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for a worse kicker and a third player in the hand showed 
for a missed flush draw to earn Andrews the pot. 
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for a lower full house after both players had flopped sets.
. 
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and Kang moved all in for 14,300. McKeehen was next to act and asked for a count before calling off with slightly less, which sent the third player in the hand into the tank.
for the nut flush and McKeehen flashed his cards before tossing them into the muck. The third player in the hand showed 
for a smaller flush. 
and the third player in the hand bet 3,000. Umdenstock called. Umdenstock checked again on the 
, which was no good against the 
