Lee Rzentkowski has been riding a big stack all day. Over the last level or two, he has worked his stack to 350,000. On a recent hand, he called a river bet of 17,500 and won the hand with a king-high straight, adding another 30,000 to his already chip-leading stack.
After exchanging double ups with Jeff Jelinek, John Reading doubled up after he called a river shove from Jeff Fielder.
Fielder raised preflop to 6,200 and Reading defended from the big blind. The flop came and Reading checked to Fielder. Fielder bet 4,200 and Reading called.
Reading led out when the hit the turn and got check-raised by fielder for 17,800 more. Reading called and the two players saw the land on the river. Reading checked to Fielder and Fielder shoved all in, putting Reading at risk should he call. Reading took a minute or two and finally called.
"Really," said Fielder, seemingly amazed by Reading's call. Fielder showed and Reading showed for top pair.
Lee Rzentkowski leads the 26 players advancing from Day 1a of the Mid-States Poker Tour Ho-Chunk Gaming Wisconsin Dells, the second-to-last stop of the tour's sixth season. Rzentkowski was the big stack for the latter half of the day and didn't seem to win any real bigs hands, he just steadily climbed the counts. On one hand, a player bet 17,500 on the river and Rzentkowski called with a straight. He added those chips to his stack, and despite a few setbacks, managed to top out at 407,000.
World Series of Poker bracelet winner John Reading and Andrew Rubinberg, who finished runner-up in the MSPT Ho-Chunk back in 2014, were two of the big movers on Day 1a. Reading held stead at around 70,000 until a massive pot in the last level against Jeff Fielder. Fielder shoved all in, putting Reading at risk. Reading called and doubled up with top pair against a bluff by Fielder. Reading finished the day with 238,500 and in fifth position.
Rubinberg was down to about 11,000 before he got aces all in against ace-king and doubled up. Since that hand, he was on a tear and moved all the way up to second on the day. During the last few hands he hit a set of fours on the turn and won another 90,000 to place him firmly in second place. Greg Seif (259,500) and James Casement (267,000) round out the top five.
Below is a list of the end of day chip counts.
Day 1b will start tomorrow at 4 p.m. local time and the surviving players will join these 26 on Sunday. Day 2 will begin at 11 a.m. on Sunday and play down to a winner.