Nicola Ditrapani Bags Chip Lead Among Dozen Day 1a Survivors
On Friday, a new mid-major poker tour officially launched with the inaugural Midway Poker Tour stop in the Chicagoland area. The first of two starting flights in the $1,100 buy-in, $100K GTD Main Event attracted 102 entries, and at the end of the night just a dozen remained with Nicola Ditrapani and his stack of 761,000 leading the way.
Ditrapani took down a massive pot late after flopping a spade flush against Josias Santos’ set of kings. The board failed to pair and Ditrapani bagged more than double his next nearest competition in Antonio De La Cruz, who advanced with 353,000.
Others to bag were Pat Steele (288,000), Andy Rogowski (272,000), Eric Salazar (173,000), Donnie Phan (159,000), and Kevin Berthelsen (126,000).
Among those to fire and fall on Day 1a were Cody Brinn, Bryan Skreens, Yousef Saleh, Michael Berk, Ryan Phan, Kou Vang, Nadya Magnus, and tour founder Dan Bekavac.
All of those players and any newcomers will have the opportunity to try again on Day 1b at Noon on Saturday. Late registration and re-entries will remain open for 12 levels. Not only will PokerNews provide live updates throughout the flight, a featured table live stream will be offered for those interested in watching some of the action.