Vazanellis Surpasses 500K to lead Day 1c as 50 Advance to Day 2
There is another player you can add to the list to bring a half-million chips into Day 2 as Day 1c of the Heartland Poker Tour Ameristar East Chicago $1,650 Main Event has come to an end.
George Vazanellis pushed toward 20 starting stacks as he finished the day with 512,000, putting him third overall behind Mike O'Neill and Josh Reichard, who advanced from the 1a flight. Vazanellis caught a hot streak after the dinner break and never looked back as he eclipsed the 500,000 before the last three levels of the night.
Second in chips was Kevin Theodore who was the only other player to surpass 400,000 on Day 1c with 474,000. Peter Kelly (391,000), Henry Zou (381,000), and Nick Pupillo (354,000) round out the top five stacks to end the night.
Others advancing included Chris Moon, Blake Whittington, Ben Grise, Shawn Roberts. Eric Salazar, Jacob Bazeley, Eddie Blumenthal, Aaron Massey, and reigning HPT Player of the YearAaron Johnson.
The total prize pool was calculated at the end of registration, coming to $833,760 with $186,812 and a $3,500 HPT Championship package to the winner. With 50 bagging Day 1c, that leaves a total of 94 runners left in the event out of 579 runners. Of those, 63 will get paid.
HPT Ameristar East Chicago Payouts
| Place | Prize Money |
|---|---|
| 1 | $186,812 |
| 2 | $115,406 |
| 3 | $75,637 |
| 4 | $52,555 |
| 5 | $38.192 |
| 6 | $29,640 |
| 7 | $24,908 |
| 8 | $20,757 |
| 9 | $16,605 |
| 10-12 | $12,786 |
| 13-15 | $9,548 |
| 16-18 | $7,306 |
| 19-27 | $5,480 |
| 28-36 | $4,566 |
| 37-45 | $3,819 |
| 46-54 | $3,238 |
| 55-63 | $2,989 |
Day 2 kicks off Sunday at 11 a.m. local time. Come back to PokerNews as action rolls to the final table.