Meyers Looking to Pad Winnings After Bagging Day 1a Lead
After 14 levels of play here on Day 1a of the Mid-States Poker Tour's second stop at Meskwaki Casino this year, tournament crusher Brandon Meyers bagged 294,000 to book a wide lead over second-place Matt McGrory. Meyers is a name familiar to many in the tournament poker world, as he has more than $4 million in online cashes under the screen names "oncommand" and "norajean," as well just under $1 million in live cashes. Meyers is a Minnesota native.
Thirty-five other players made it through the 10-hour grind out of 164 total registrants. McGrory (247,000), bracelet winner Grant Hinkle (183,000), Harold Poignant (166,000), and Ken Auker (131,500) joined Meyers in the top five. John Oetker (117,000), Gennady Shimelfarb (114,000, coming off a Main Event cash), Phil Mader (103,000), Kou Vang (65,000), Adam Dahlin (56,500), and Jason Seitz (35,000) were among those advancing to Sunday's Day 2.
Meyers was working with a hefty stack for most of the day. One pot in particular vaulted him to the top of the counts early on. Nemesis Adam Zych doubled him up on a board of 
when Zych's 
failed to catch the 
held by Meyers, good for the nut straight. After a costly setback at the hands of Grant Hinkle's boat, Meyers rallied in the late levels to take a monster lead and hang on.
Some of today's less fortunate: Lance Harris, Matt Kirby, Taylor Tollefson, Zych, Brett Kuznia, Jeff Bryan, Allen Kessler, Chris Tryba, Dustin Dirksen, Aaron Johnson, and Tyler Caspers. We hope to see all of these players and more take a crack at Saturday's Day 1b, and we'll be bringing you all of the interesting happenings, right here on PokerNews.