Main Event
Day 1a Completed
Main Event
Day 1a Completed
It was not a good day to be a well-known poker player with big-time results at WinStar.
After more than 16 levels of play on Day 1a of WinStar River Poker Series $2,500 Main Event, 46 players out of 378 entries bagged up chips. The list of those who made it through would not be mistaken for a group of poker superstars, as most of the big-name grinders who made the trip to the America's biggest casino found themselves on the rail at least once and were absent by night's end.
WinStar ambassador Maria Ho, DJ Alexander, Marvin Rettenmaier, Rainer Kempe, Dan Heimiller, Mike Wang, David "The Dragon" Pham, Allen Kessler and Anthony Spinella were just some of the players with millions in winnings and/or major titles to their names who fired on Day 1a. All ran dry on chips and will have to make things work on Day 1b if they hope to get a crack at this $2 million guaranteed prize pool.
Notables who did avoid joining the star-studded graveyard included Wendy Freedman, Dan "Duma" Lowery, Matthew Kelly and Alex Greenblatt.
By contrast, the leaderboard features Johnny Deas (543,000), Stephen "Turtle" Brach (524,000) and Jeff Sowell (473,500) pacing the field.
Deas had so many chips secured by the time hand-for-hand player began with 48 players left that he simply vacated the area, content to bag up heaps whenever two players went bust and apparently unwilling to risk losing any of his monster stack.
Brach, meanwhile, took the opposite tact and busied himself dragging pots and surging up the counts. He wound up bursting the bubble after flopping the nut straight and busting a player who turned an inferior straight and check-raised all in drawing stone dead to chop.
Sowell raked in what was likely the biggest pot of the day way back in Level 11 (800/1,600/200). He flopped bottom pair and a combo draw against a player with the nut flush draw and another with an overpair of kings. Sowell hit running queens for a full house to take in a pot worth about 450,000.
Day 1b gets rolling Sunday at noon and will play down to 12 percent just like Day 1a. Come back to PokerNews then for more live coverage of this $2 million guaranteed event.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Johnny Deas
|
543,000 | 120,000 |
Stephen Brach | 524,000 | |
Jeff Sowell | 473,500 | -19,500 |
Will Pengelly | 429,500 | -47,500 |
Jon Scarborough | 423,000 | 177,000 |
James Thatcher | 411,000 | 11,000 |
Larry Hirons | 404,000 | 404,000 |
Gary Sixkiller | 403,500 | 11,500 |
Phil Osborne | 357,000 | 90,000 |
Wendy Freedman | 341,000 | -29,000 |
Austin Lewis | 301,500 | 301,500 |
Ted Gillis
|
290,000 | -63,500 |
Mark Fisher | 283,000 | 283,000 |
Dan Lowery | 266,500 | 174,800 |
Joon Cho | 235,500 | -84,500 |
Billy Holler | 224,000 | 224,000 |
Robert Jenkins | 220,000 | |
Jon Bennett | 196,000 | -20,000 |
Wei Zhang | 191,500 | 191,500 |
Pedro Palacio | 185,000 | 185,000 |
Jason Turck | 179,500 | 179,500 |
Julio Marines | 173,500 | 173,500 |
Keith Copp | 157,000 | 157,000 |
Michael Waterstradt | 153,500 | 153,500 |
Darrell Hopkins | 150,500 |
A player in early position checked and called 20,000 from Stephen "Turtle" Brach on . The turn was the and the first player checked. Brach bet 65,000 and his opponent tanked awhile then shoved for about 55,000 more. Brach quickly flicked in a call and showed .
The other player showed for the dead end of the straight and the river was the .
"You're welcome," Brach said to the onlookers who had come to sweat the action.
The remaining players will bag their chips and come back for Day 2 on Monday.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Stephen Brach | 524,000 | 524,000 |
Action's been slow on the stone bubble since an early elimination. Finally, a big pot developed as a player in the cutoff opened for a raise and Robert Jenkins defended big blind. The flop came and Jenkins check-called 20,000. On the turn, he checked again and his opponent shoved for 70,000 effective.
Jenkins snap-called with for a set and didn't even need to sweat the river as his opponent had for a drawing-dead bluff.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Robert Jenkins | 220,000 | 64,000 |
Level: 17
Blinds: 3,000/6,000
Ante: 1,000
The tournament is now hand-for-hand with 48 players left and 46 players scheduled to cash and bag.
A player in the hijack opened and got action from small blind Jeff Sowell and big blind Phil Osborne. On the flop, Sowell came out betting with 25,000, and only Osborne continued. Action was the same on the turn and both players checked the river.
Sowell opened for top pair and Osborne showed and mucked.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Jeff Sowell | 493,000 | 3,000 |
Phil Osborne | 267,000 | -153,000 |
We saw Jason Gooch standing up and grabbing his belongings, and the dealer pushed his stack to Wendy Freedman. We arrived just in time to see Gooch had gotten it in for about 120,000 on the button with queens but failed to hold against Freedman's .
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Wendy Freedman | 370,000 | 160,000 |
Jason Gooch | Busted |