Tong Bags Chip Lead on Day 1a of Texas State Main Event
The first flight of Day 1 of the Inaugural Texas State Main Event 1 Million GTD is in the books after 13 hours of play. It was an eventful day of action that attracted a total of 129 entries and ended with 16 still remaining to advance to Day 2 on Sunday May 2.
Of the 16 surviving players, the biggest stack was Jimmy Tong. Tong gathered a large amount of chips in the middle part of the day when he rivered a wheel to overcome flopped trips. From there he went to the featured table and played a high percentage of hands, tossing chips around, gathering and losing. At one point his chip lead dipped down to near the average but he was able to chip back up again and then take over the lead on the last hand of the night when his full boat sunk Upeshka De Silva to end the night.
Also bagging was James Duke, Bryan Piccioli and none other than Chris Moneymaker who was close to the chip lead late in the night but took a bad beat from Duke when his aces were cracked by queens when a queen hit the flop on the bubble. Moneymaker was able to shake off that beat and survive to the finish line of the day.
The action will repeat itself tomorrow on Day 1b, the second flight of five opening flights, as players return to the felt for another shot at 11 a.m.
PokerNews will pick up the bombastic action from there as the field continues to grow in this first time mega event in the Lone Star State.
. Upeshka De Silva bet 22,000 in position. Jimmy Tong raised to 85,000. De Silva called.
. Tong checked. De Silva bet 94,000 and Tong moved all in. 
while de Silva tossed over the 
.
finished him off as the bubble finisher.
against the 
of Moneymaker.
. The turn was the 
and the river came the 
to keep Duke alive and the bubble going while Moneymaker was knocked short.
with three players in the hand. Shawn Rice bet 10,000, James Duke folded and Jimmy Tong called.
. Tong pushed a stack of chips forward for a big bet of about 90,000. Rice waited a few moments and announced all in which Tong called quickly.
while Tong tabled the rivered wheel with the 
much to Rice's dismay as his once large stack was reduced to nearly nothing while Tong shot up the chip leaderboard like a rocket.
. Rawlinson turned the tables and led out with a hefty bet of 40,000 which Vazquez snap one chip called.
, while Vazquez tabled the winner with the 
for two pair.
of Blake Barousse and the 
and the river came the 
