Day 1 of the 2012 DeepStacks Poker Tour Mohegan Sun National Championship is in the books. After 10 one-hour levels, roughly 120 players remain from the 242 entrants that registered throughout the day. On top of the counts is David Stefanski, who bagged 348,100 chips. That looks to be a good 150,000 chips clear of his nearest competitor. Stefanski quietly amassed a big stack before winning a gigantic pot against fellow big stack Nesrine Kourdourli during Level 10.
DeepStacks Pro was well represented in the field today as Mike Matusow (140,200), Chip Jett (56,600), Darrel Dier (39,900), and Tristan Wade (25,800) all made it through on their first buy-in. Arguably the biggest DeepStacks name, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, went 0-for-3 today but with the option to re-enter until the beginning of Day 2, we expect Mizrachi back on the felt tomorrow.
Other notables who will be back in action on Sunday include Vanessa Selbst (162,600), Jared Jaffee (157,000), David Paredes (133,700), Matt Affleck (133,300), Aaron Massey (100,300), Ashton Griffin (92,300), Matt Glantz (83,300), Kurt Jewell (78,700), and Scott Baumstein (67,300).
Among those who busted on Day 1 and opted not to re-enter were Amnon Filippi, Daryl Jace, Victor Ramdin, Brian Lamanna, and Dave Inselberg.
Day 2 will begin at noon local time tomorrow, so be sure to keep it here at PokerNews for all of the exciting action. Until then, good night from Connecticut!
As we were watching the action at another table, Nesrine Kourdourli came over to a friend. "I'm out," she said.
"Really??" he replied.
Having counted her at about 165,000 not long ago, somebody at her table was going to have a good amount of chips. David Stefanski, who had a healthy stack of about 150,000 last time we counted him, now had about 330,000 in front of him and was kind enough to give us the details.
After a player in early position opened to 2,200, Stefanski called in the cutoff. Kourdourli called from the button, Mike Dentale called from the big blind, and the flop came down with two clubs. Dentale checked to the original raiser who bet 3,800. Both Stefanski and Kourdourli called, Dentale folded, and the hit the turn, putting two spades on the board as well.
The original raiser checked, Stefanski bet 10,500, but Kourdourli raised to 24,000. The original raiser ducked out of the way and Stefanski near clicked it back to 38,000. A call from Kourdourli landed the on the river where Stefanski bet about 28,000, leading to a Kourdourli shove for roughly 115,000.
Stefanski called with for a set, besting Kourdourli's hand to win the massive pot.
Brian Lamanna was first to act on a board of . He checked. Jared Jaffee tossed out 3,500, a third player called, and Lamanna check-shoved for what looked like 25,000 or so. Jaffee made the call, and the third player folded.
Lamanna:
Jaffee:
The turn and river came , respectively, and Lamanna was eliminated.
[user101598]
Aaron Massey respects a good head of hair.
Daryl Jace has been MIA for the better part of Level 6, and, thanks to Aaron Massey, we finally found out why.
According to Massey, Jace busted in a hand where he opened, a player called, and Massey put in a three-bet. Jace four-bet, Massey five-bet to "around 11,000," and Jace tanked for two minutes before six-bet shoving all in for around 40,000.
Massey tanked for 20 seconds, then called with two kings. Jace had ace-king, and the board did not improve his hand.
"He had the best head of hair in the room," Massey told us.
We guess that's a decent consolation prize, but it's certainly not worth the $2,500 entrance fee.
Upon passing the feature table, we noticed that Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi was missing. There are no chips at his seat either, signifying that his first bullet was a misfire.
Day 1 of the 2012 DeepStacks Poker Tour Mohegan Sun National Championship is set to start in around 20 minutes here in Uncasville, Connecticut. A handful of notables have already been spotted, including Ashton Griffin, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, Mike Matusow, Allen "The Chainsaw" Kessler, Justin "Boosted J" Smith, and Vanessa Selbst.
The players will begin with 40,000 in tournament chips, and they may re-enter the tournament if they bust during the first five levels. The plan is to play ten 60-minute levels here on Day 1. Then we'll bag and tag, and do it all again tomorrow.
with two clubs. Dentale checked to the original raiser who bet 3,800. Both Stefanski and Kourdourli called, Dentale folded, and the 
hit the turn, putting two spades on the board as well.
on the river where Stefanski bet about 28,000, leading to a Kourdourli shove for roughly 115,000.
![[user101598]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
. He checked. Jared Jaffee tossed out 3,500, a third player called, and Lamanna check-shoved for what looked like 25,000 or so. Jaffee made the call, and the third player folded.
, 
respectively, and Lamanna was eliminated.
