Keller Leads After Day 1c, Bazeley Near the Top
The final starting flight has drawn to a close in the Heartland Poker Tour $1,100 Main Event at Hollywood Casino Lawrenceburg. With 47 players moving on from Day 1c, David Keller will return for Day 2 with the overall chip lead and 516,000 chips.
Keller remained patient throughout most of the day and timed his spots perfectly. Twice, he picked up pocket aces and got max value, tripling up one time and doubling up another. Keller managed to take over the chip lead in the latter stages of the last level as the only player over 500,000 chips.
A few more of the big stacks to move on from Day 1c include Ronnie Day (516,000), Jake Bazeley (455,000), Iverson Snuffer (431,000), and John Nelson (342,000). Bazeley is the most notable of the remaining players left in the field with over $4.4 million in career earnings. The Cincinnati native lives just a short drive away from Lawrenceburg, Indiana and is looking to pocket yet another six-figure score to add to his resume.
The ballroom on the bottom floor of the casino was packed with poker players right from the start of the day. Over 80 players took their seats when the action kicked off at 12pm. The tournament staff had their hands full trying to open more tables to keep up with the number of entries throughout the registration period. When late registration closed, there were a total of 293 entries for Day 1c.
That brought the total to 555 entries for the Main Event, which more than doubled the guaranteed prizepool of $250,000. When the players return for Day 2 tomorrow, there will be $532,800 up for grabs with 63 places getting paid. There will be 86 players returning on Sunday all looking to get their hands on some cash.
There was no shortage of action in the early going today, with two eliminations occurring in the first 10 minutes of play. David Worden was the beneficiary of one those player's starting stacks but he was unable to hold on to those chips long enough to find a bag. Some other names to hit the rail include Greg Raymer, Bruce Hugon, Michael Shanahan, and James Pupillo.
Some other notables that were fortunate enough to bag up chips include Ian Richardson (224,000), Henry Zou (187,000), Nick Pupillo (183,000), Nick Guagenti (153,000), Kyle Besaw (129,000), and the Stammen brothers Matthew (148,000) and Keven (61,000).
The action will resume at 11am on Sunday with just over 20 eliminations away from the money. The blinds will begin at 2,500/5,000 with a 5,000 big blind ante. The levels will continue at 40-minutes in length and the schedule is to play down to the final nine players.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be back to bring you all of the live updates throughout the Main Event.
and the action checked around to the 
on the turn.
completed the board. Jansen and Wright knuckled the table once more and Besaw bet 25,000. Jansen called and Wright quickly folded.
. 
, Jake Bazeley checked from the blinds to James Pupillo who bet 4,000 in position. Bazeley check-raised to 11,000 and Pupillo quickly stuck in all of his chips. Bazeley called off his stack of 35,800 and the cards were tabled.
on the turn and the 
on the river changed nothing as Bazeley found a double up.
on the river completed her flush to score a double up.
and the action checked to Worden on the button who bet 700. Stephen Hyvonen called from the small blind along with James McClurg in the cutoff. 
and Hyvonen chose to lead out for 1,100. McClurg min-raised to 2,200 and both Worden and Hyvonen called. The river was the 
and all three players knuckled the table. Hyvonen tabled 
, McClurg showed 
.
