Hack Cuts Through Flight 1a, Matakis and Moreno Bag Big
After just over 12 hours of play, The Mid-States Poker Tour $1,600 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event came to a close with just 34 out of the initial 272 entrants.
Leading the way is Mike Hack who bagged 726,000. The Las Vegas resident has a long list of cashes dating all the way back to 2009. He will be looking to add to his $830,520 in lifetime earnings, perhaps even top his best lifetime cash of $125,103, and has put himself in prime position to do so.
Nipping at his heels are Ian Matakis with 564,000 and Andrew Moreno with 444,000. Mitakis is coming hot off of his best lifetime cash of $125,326 for a 13th place in the Wynn millions and spent the whole day as one of the top stacks. Moreno found himself knocking out MSPT all-time money leader Rich Alsup, when his pocket tens beat Alsup’s ace-king, to shoot up the leaderboards late in the day.
Top Ten Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Hack | 726,000 |
| 2 | Ian Matakis | 564,000 |
| 3 | Hoi Wong | 510,000 |
| 4 | David Moore | 472,000 |
| 5 | Andrew Moreno | 444,000 |
| 6 | Mohammad Mufti | 406,000 |
| 7 | Pierce McKellar | 350,000 |
| 8 | Rob Wazwaz | 323,000 |
| 9 | Cristina Ilie | 313,000 |
| 10 | Ryan Van Sanford | 300,000 |
Others that managed to find bags include Rob Wazwaz (323,000), Cristina Ilie (313,000), Ryan Van Sanford (300,000), Samantha Cohen (140,000), and Peter Lockwood(108,000). Not all were as fortunate though as players like Barry Hutter, Vojtech Ruzicka, 4-time MSPT Champion Dan Bekavac, and WSOP 2007 Main Event Winner Jerry Yang all found themselves eliminated throughout the course of the day.
This tournament has unlimited re-entry throughout all flights and those players, as well as others, will have to play the flights of the following two days to make Day 2. The remaining 34 players will bag up and return on Thursday, June 9th at 11 AM with blinds returning at 3,000/6,000 with a 6,000 big blind ante.
Day 1B kicks off tomorrow at 11:10 AM at Venetian Resort In Las Vegas, Nevada, with players beginning with 30,000 starting chips. Two more flights to make day 2 of this $2,000,000 guaranteed tournament. Stay tuned to PokerNews for all updates regarding this tournament.
which gave the early position player a pair of kings. The turn 
gave wheel outs for Alsup and the river 
straightened Alsup out to give himself the winning wheel to more than double up to one of the tournament big stacks.
which gave no assistance towards Towson and Wazwaz scooped the biggest pot of the tournament so far.
and the big blind check-called a bet of 5,500 from Alsup. 
hit and once more the big blind checked to Alsup who bet 13,000 and his opponent folded, giving Alsup the pot. 
which left Bednar drawing dead on the turn and Ilie to take his chips. 
and Jozoff checked to his opponent who bet 1,500 and Jozoff responded by raising to 4,000, which his opponent called. 
and Jozoff continued for 6,000 which his opponent responded to by moving all-in for 16,700 and Jozoff snap-called. 
changed nothing about the hands and Jozoff stacked another player as his chip stack continued to grow.
giving no help to the ace-eight and Massimiano took down the pot to add to his growing stack.
which gave Daniels a seven-high straight which beat his opponents nines and Daniels sat back down joking "that's why I grabbed the backpack."