Qualifer Michael McNicholas Among Chip Leaders at End of Day 1 in BetMGM Poker Championship
Day 1 of the 2022 BetMGM Poker Championship $3,500 Main Event at the beautiful ARIA Resort and Casino in Las Vegas has concluded with 90 players left after nine hours of play. Michael McNicholas is among the chip leaders with a healthy stack of 346,000 as he looks to take home his latest tournament score.
McNicholas, a one-time World Series of Poker Circuit ring winner with $116,746 in live earnings, will be joined on Day 2 by fellow big stacks Graham Mathews (380,000), Linus Richter (296,000), fellow qualifier Edward Leonard (287,500) and Albert Nguyen (262,000).
Day 1 of the Main Event atttracted 210 runners and many of the biggest names in poker. Some of the notables who made it to bagging time include 2015 WSOP Main Event champion Joe McKeehen, Anton Wigg, Nick Schulman, Isaac Kempton, Jake Daniels, Kevin Rabichow, Dejuante "DJ" Alexander, Matthew Wantman and James Romero.
A total of 68 players qualified into the Main Event by playing online on BetMGM Poker, among them Vincent Lestingi, Larry Lucci, Connor Boyle, Vineet "Vinny" Pahuja, Kevin Allebach, Corey Paggeot, John Goodin and Yuriy Garifoulline.
BetMGM Poker Ambassadors Matt Berkey and Darren Elias both fired multiple bullets across Day 1, but only Elias found a bag as the night wound down.
Some of the players who didn't survive to bag include Nate Silver, Ryan Laplante, Connor Drinan, Thomas Muehloecker and Ryan Hagerty.
Day 2 of the BetMGM Poker Championship will kick off on Friday, June 24 at noon PST on Level 10 with blinds at 1,000/2,000/2,000. Like the previous day, Day 2 will play for nine 60-minute levels with players taking a 15-minute break every two levels. Late registration will remain open until the completion of Level 11.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be back on-site tomorrow for continued coverage of the BetMGM Poker Championship at ARIA. Stay tuned.