Rodriguez Leads Big on Day 1a of the MSPT Black Hawk $360 Regional
The first of four starting flights to the Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) Black Hawk $360 Regional set quite the pace for what should shape up to be an impressive weekend, drawing 151 entries on a Wednesday afternoon. Fifteen levels later, 22 players remained with a familiar face to Bally's Black Hawk in James Rodriguez (675,000) bagging a massive chip lead.
"J-Rod" got through on one bullet for the day, joining before the first break of the day and quickly chipping up to more than double the 25K starting stack. Two hours later, he chipped up a bit more and then caught some heat to take one of the top stacks in the room into the dinner break.
From there, Rodriguez challenged the chip lead in the room before playing what wound up to be the largest hand of the night, eliminating Barry Faecher with pocket aces to king-queen on a king-high board in a blind-versus-blind battle. When the hand was finished, Rodriguez found himself with more than 700,000 and built that up a bit more before doubling up Yohannes Ambaye just before the end of the night to end with 675,000.
Daniel Sandoval (374,000), Rod Siegfried (342,000), Jordan Walker (336,000), and Alex Kotliarsky (285,000) rounded out the top five, with other notables such as Clay Wilson (235,000), Ben Keeline (227,000), and Aaron Thomas (85,000) also making it through.
Plenty of others did not advance, including Aaron Frei, Terry Wheeler, Greg Colins, Greg Gius, and Ryan Hopp. Along with all others not included in the Day 2 roster, they will have three more flights to take shots at finding their way into Sunday's Day 2.
Day 1b is next up at noon local time on Thursday. Big turnouts are expected, and increasingly so with each passing flight, so be sure to come up early and enter ahead of time. Registration will be open at 10 a.m. and PokerNews will be in to bring you action from the time cards are in the air until chips go into bags.
and Rodriguez checked to Faecher, who bet 25,000. Rodriguez check-raised to 75,000 and Faecher called. Rodriguez then shoved for roughly an effective pot-sized bet on the turn 
. 
, bringing about his elimination as Rodriguez took down the largest pot of the tournament thus far, making him the clear chip leader with about 15 minutes of play left in the night.
with heads-up action between the hijack and Chris Durant, who was on the button. Action was on the hijack, facing an all-in shove from Durant for his effective stack of 28,100. After some time, a call was made.
to confirm it did not give him his necessary two outer to stay alive.
, but his aces ultimately remained best and he earned the pot and knockout as a result.
. Action checked to Patch and he continuation-bet 9,000. The hijack called, Lazzara folded, and then Wheeler called.
and Patch bet 30,000, more than enough to put his remaining opponents all in. The hijack folded and then Wheeler thought for a bit before announcing a call.
, sending Wheeler to re-enter as the pot was shipped Patch's way.
. A player in early position jammed for 6,000 and Mary Hendricks re-jammed from the hijack, prompting all other players to quickly fold.
for top pair, top kicker with the nut flush draw.