$1,200 Main Event
Day 1a Completed
2023 RGPS Jacksonville
$1,200 Main Event
Day: 1a
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
Players Info - Day 1a
2023 RGPS Jacksonville
Buy-in
$1,200
Prize Pool
$653,120
Entries
628
Level
30
Blinds
80,000 / 160,000
Ante
160,000
Entries
103
Players Left
15
Josh Wang Holds Massive Chip Lead in Day 1a
Level 14
: Blinds 2,000/4,000, 4,000 ante
After over 10 hours of play, Josh Wang is the undisputed chip leader after a wild opening flight of the RunGood Poker Series Jacksonville Main Event saw 28 survivors advance to Day 2 here at bestbet Jacksonville.
Wang's stack of 689,000 places him well above the pack average of 206,867 with Matthew Johnson coming in second with 471,000.
Day 1a Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Hometown | State | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Josh Wang | Orlando | FL | 689,000 |
| 2 | Matthew Johnson | Smyrna | TN | 471,000 |
| 3 | Geoffrey Blum | Jacksonville | FL | 353,000 |
| 4 | Ronald Slucker | Ponte Vedra | FL | 294,000 |
| 5 | Nghia Le | Jacksonville | FL | 240,000 |
| 6 | Alan Wentz | OH | 158,000 | |
| 7 | Kelly Andrews | Florence | SC | 156,000 |
| 8 | Jeremy Gaubert | St. Johns | FL | 114,000 |
| 9 | Nicholas Chong | St. Augustine | FL | 114,000 |
| 10 | Tarun Gulati | Tampa | FL | 102,000 |
| 11 | Raminder Singh | Delray Beach | FL | 98,000 |
| 12 | Alan Franco | Jacksonville | FL | 97,000 |
| 13 | Steve Zhang | Jacksonville | FL | 94,000 |
| 14 | Christopher Long | Jacksonville | FL | 65,000 |
| 15 | Hunter Wroten | St. Augustine | FL | 58,000 |
A field of 103 entries took their shot at advancing to Sunday’s Day 2, starting the tournament well on its way to eclipsing the $300,000 guaranteed prize pool.
Play wrapped up at the end of level 14 as scheduled, with just under 15% of the field remaining.
Some of the other notables to survive the day include Raminder Singh (98,000), Tarun Gulati (102,000), and Kelly Joe Andrews (156,000).
Among those not fortunate enough to find a bag were RGPS Jacksonville ambassador Kris Burchfield and 2022 bestbet Jacksonville Summer Heater Series runner-up James Leonard.
The second of three opening flights will take place Friday, with a starting time at noon. Players who failed to advance Thursday will have another shot at making it to Sunday’s final day of play, and even those who did make it through Day 1a can hop in again in hopes of accumulating a bigger stack to take into Sunday instead of their total from this flight.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for our continuing coverage of the event until a champion is crowned on Sunday at the action-packed bestbet Jacksonville!
End of Day Chip Counts (full)
Level 14
: Blinds 2,000/4,000, 4,000 ante
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
689,000 | 689,000 |
|
471,000 | 208,000 |
|
353,000 | 158,000 |
|
294,000 | 54,000 |
|
240,000 | 240,000 |
|
158,000 | 158,000 |
|
156,000 | -44,000 |
|
114,000 | 54,000 |
|
114,000 | 78,000 |
|
102,000 | -8,000 |
|
98,000 | -62,000 |
|
97,000 | 97,000 |
|
94,000 | 49,000 |
|
65,000 | -5,000 |
|
58,000 | -67,000 |
End of Day; Players Bag
Level 14
: Blinds 2,000/4,000, 4,000 ante
Flight Day 1a is completed, and the remaining 15 players have begun the bagging process to return on Day 2.
A full recap of the day and chip counts will be released shortly, so stay tuned!
Last Three Hands
Level 14
: Blinds 2,000/4,000, 4,000 ante
The Tournament Director has announced that three more hands will be dealt, after which players will begin the bagging process.
Aces for Long; Stellar Fold from Miller
Level 14
: Blinds 2,000/4,000, 4,000 ante
Pete Miller opened under-the-gun to 20,000 and action folded around to Christopher Long who then shoves all in for a total of 43,000.
When it got back to Miller, who was sitting on 200,000, the table expected him to make a quick call and the cards would be tabled. But instead, he paused and went into the tank for a good while.
After about a minute, he finally shook his head and threw his cards away, much to the shock of the table, especially Long.
"How the hell do you fold that?!" Long exclaimed in disbelief as he flipped over 
," it was a min-raise!"
"I had pocket fives man, I mean, come on now," Miller replied.
The table was still shocked at the impressive fold as the next hand was dealt around.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
195,000 | |
|
|
70,000 | 52,000 |
Level: 14
Blinds: 2,000/4,000
Ante: 4,000
Slucker Forces Gulati to Decision
Level 13
: 2,000/3,000, 3,000 ante
On a heads-up flop of 
, Ronald Slucker led out for 6,000 but was then raised to 19,000 by his opponent Tarun Gulati.
Slucker then snap-jammed all in for around 200,000, covering Gulati and sending him deep into the tank.
"Only two hands beat me," Gulati finally said after some time, "...I'm never supposed to fold this,"
After another minute or so, Gulati folded 
face-up, "This is the nuts, but nice hand".
The table had mixed feelings about the hand, but their opinion didn't matter as the pot was shipped to Slucker to boost his stack to 240,000.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
240,000 | 50,000 |
|
|
110,000 | 35,000 |
Flop Sends Foley Home
Level 13
: 2,000/3,000, 3,000 ante
Adam Foley and Stefano Calenzani got all their chips into the middle before the flop, with Foley at risk of elimination.
Adam Foley: 
Stefano Calenzani: 
Calenzani was ahead going into this flip, and the flop of 
put him light years ahead as Foley could now only hit running diamonds. The turn 
sealed his fate as he was left drawing dead and the meaningless 
came on the river to award Calenzani the pot and sent Foley to the rail.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
118,000 | |
|
Busted |
Level: 13
Blinds: 2,000/3,000
Ante: 3,000