Hickey Leads Remaining 11 Players from Day 1a of the MSPT Sycuan Main Event
Jason Hickey of Marina Del Rey, California is the chip leader at the end of Day 1a of the Mid-States Poker Tour(MSPT) $1,110 Main Event, part of the Showtime Series at San Diego’s Sycuan Casino Resort. In total, there were 98 runners for the first of three flights this weekend, and 11 will return on Sunday for the combined finale.
Hickey is in search of his first MSPT win after running his stack up to over 100 big blinds on Day 1a. Other players moving on to Sunday’s Day 2 include Ken Morey, Andrew Ostapchenko, Rich Alsup, and David Leese.
Day 1a Leaderboard
| Place | Player | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jason Hickey | 441,000 | 110 |
| 2 | Ken Morey | 381,000 | 95 |
| 3 | Luke Nguyen | 364,000 | 91 |
| 4 | David Leese | 204,000 | 51 |
| 5 | Charly Peterson | 195,000 | 49 |
| 6 | Nathan Trimble | 195,000 | 49 |
| 7 | Andrew Ostapchenko | 176,000 | 44 |
| 8 | Leonid Vaisburg | 148,000 | 37 |
| 9 | Woo Suk Oh | 139,000 | 35 |
| 10 | Rich Alsup | 106,000 | 26 |
| 11 | Katerina Grishakova | 101,000 | 25 |
Day 1a Action
Day 1a saw several highlights from players up and down the leaderboard. Early in the day, Richard Lanes tracked down the PokerNews team to share a royal flush. A short time later, Marcel Sabag sent Matt Morfitt to the rail with ace-queen.
Luke Nguyen is among the chip leaders after running well all day. He picked up nines to crack Tai Purpero’s aces on his way to finishing second in chips. Katerina Grishakova will look for a spot to spin it up after making a run for Day 2 with hands like this one, where she Anthony Pitesa packing with ace-king.
Two of the Day 1a survivors qualified their way to the MSPT Main Event through the ClubGG app. Charly Peterson and Woo Suk Oh will return on Sunday after earning their seat for the event through the subscription poker app.
Other players that took their shot on Day 1a but came up short include Gary Crite, Dantram Huynh, and Matt Morfitt. Players will have additional opportunities to enter on Friday for Day 1b and Saturday for Day 1c. Players advancing from all three flights will meet on Sunday for the Day 2 finale.
Day 1b will kick off tomorrow at 3 p.m. PST. Players will start with 25,000 in chips and play 40-minute levels. Registration is open until the beginning of Level 13 and players have unlimited rebuys until that point.
Be sure to keep it here all weekend long with the PokerNews team for live updates from the MSPT Main Event at Sycuan Casino Resort in San Diego.
and Grishakova picked up the elimination with kings and nines.
and Pitesa had to sweat a diamond. The turn was 
and the river 
, with no diamond for Sabag, and Pitesa finally found his double to make it onto PokerNews.
and Alsup's tens held on to score the elimination.
