Moneymaker's Road to PSPC 2020 - Dublin

Just 68 players advanced from Day 1a of Moneymaker's Road to PSPC 2020 here at the Bonnington Hotel in Dublin and Chris Moneymaker himself will be joining them in Day 2. He was one of the 301 players who joined the first flight of the tournament and survived 14 levels to bag up at the end of the night.

He didn't have it all his own way, scoring some crucial doubles along the way only to lose a critical pot late on but he will have a day off to work out exactly how to increase his stack of 43,000 in search of another cash on his own tour!

The late pot came against Drew Dwyer who already sat on a stack of well over 250,000, but a late clash moved him over 400,000 and into the overall chip lead! In a four-bet pot pre-flop, he shoved an eight-high flop and got Mahmood Rasheed to commit all his chips to the pot with pocket nines.

However, Dwyer held pocket aces and they held meaning he bagged up 405,000 as the only player above 400,000 in chips.

Meanwhile, at the outer tables, Darren Carroll (333,000) and Gary Stokes (314,000) were the only other players to bag up over 300,000 in chips for Day 2 which gets underway on Sunday (12pm). Other players who bagged include 2018 Platinum Pass winners Blair Payne (94,500) and Chris Martin (51,000) along with Shawn Morales (275,000), Gareth McMahon (272,000) and Sammy O'Brien (268,000).

Those unlucky to bust on Day 1a such as Paul Leckey, Andy Black, Padraig Parkinson, Janos Jeszek, Rory Cartwright, Martin Olali and Tom Parsons will have two flights remaining to join the 68 players advancing. Day 1b gets underway at 1pm local time, with a turbo 15-minute level Day 1c starting at 8pm.

Stay tuned to PokerNews for continued coverage of Moneymaker's Road to PSPC 2020 right here in Dublin

There will be three more hands before players bag up ahead of Day 2.

Dressed in the finest tartan kilt, Robert Tait is clear to see from across the poker tournament floor. Sadly, he's just been eliminated after failing to stay above water.

"I had 140,000 and was getting ace-jack, ace-queen and ace-king but had to fold them on the flop because everyone was mean!" he told PokerNews "I was down to 16 bigs and I jammed the cutoff with ace-jack and another player snapped with nines.

"I hit the ace and the turn's the nine. I've got a bullet for tomorrow, but I was hoping to have tomorrow off! It's just disappointing that we had 140,000. I should have just gone to bed!

"I didn't play bad. I was just getting the hands, but not getting the flops!"

Paul Coyle moved all in for 23,500 from middle position and was called by a single player.

Paul Coyle:
Opponent:

Coyle was in a good position and flopped top pair on the flop. The turn and river changed nothing and he doubled up.

Players are going on their last 20-minute break of the day. When they return there will be two levels remaining in the day before players bag up for Day 2.