Welcome to Day 1a of 2019 HPT East Chicago
One of the Heartland Poker Tour flagship events is set to kick off as it is time once again for HPT Ameristar East Chicago $1,650 Main Event after a solid week of preliminary action here just outside of the Windy City.
The Main Event gets rolling with Day 1a, the first of three starting flights. Cards and chips are scheduled to start flying at 2 p.m. local time.
While the tournament doesn't carry a guarantee, it has typically gone well north of a $500,000 guarantee in the past, with the prize pool often reaching around $1 million.
This past May, HPT Ameristar Casino crowned a new Main Event Champion as Chris Moon topped a field of 570 to take down a career-best $183,899 and a $3,500 HPT Championship package to join the likes of Nick Davidson, Josh Reichard, Aaron Massey, and Nick Pupillo as HPT titleholders at the Ameristar Casino in East Chicago.
HPT Ameristar East Chicago Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chris Moon | $183,899 |
| 2 | Artem Zverkhovskyy | $113,605 |
| 3 | Eric Salazar | $74,456 |
| 4 | Craig Casino | $51,735 |
| 5 | Bryant Miller | $37,596 |
| 6 | Mike O'Neill | $29,178 |
| 7 | Paul Elfelt | $24,519 |
| 8 | Dennis Ng | $20,433 |
| 9 | Bret Martin | $16,346 |
Starting Flight
The plan for Day 1a is to play 15 levels, lasting 40 minutes apiece, with breaks after every three levels including a 60-minute dinner break after Level 9. Alternately, play may end if 13 percent of the field — rounded down — is left at some point.
Everyone will receive 30,000 chips to start with blinds beginning at 100/100 and progressing to 2,000/4,000/4,000 with the big blind ante coming into play at the start of level four. Players can reenter as many times as they wish, should they go bust.
The surviving players from all starting flights will return for Day 2 action at 11 am on Sunday and will play down to a final table which will be live-streamed with a 10-minute delay Monday, September 2nd.
“HPT is excited to have PokerNews providing additional event coverage in 2019,” said Korey Stewart, HPT Marketing Manager. “Season XV is shaping up to be another record-breaking year for the tour. We’ve already added several new venues to the schedule and we’re hoping to announce a few more new additions soon. There will be plenty of opportunities for poker enthusiasts across the country to take a shot at winning life-changing money at nationally televised final tables. We’re looking forward to having an industry leader like PokerNews there to report on it every step of the way.”
Main Event Structure
| Level | Length | Small Blind | Big Blind | BB Ante |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 40 minutes | 100 | 100 | 0 |
| 2 | 40 minutes | 100 | 200 | 0 |
| 3 | 40 minutes | 100 | 300 | 0 |
| 4 | 40 minutes | 100 | 300 | 300 |
| 5 | 40 minutes | 200 | 400 | 400 |
| 6 | 40 minutes | 200 | 500 | 500 |
| 7 | 40 minutes | 300 | 600 | 600 |
| 8 | 40 minutes | 400 | 800 | 800 |
| 9 | 40 minutes | 500 | 1,000 | 1,000 |
| 10 | 40 minutes | 600 | 1,200 | 1,200 |
| 11 | 40 minutes | 800 | 1,600 | 1,600 |
| 12 | 40 minutes | 1,000 | 2.000 | 2.000 |
| 13 | 40 minutes | 1,500 | 2,500 | 2,500 |
| 14 | 40 minutes | 1,500 | 3,000 | 3,000 |
| 15 | 40 minutes | 2,000 | 4,000 | 4,000 |
PokerNews will be here all weekend long catching all the action straight from the tournament floor, so be sure to stay tuned as the action gets underway here at Ameristar East Chicago!