Tough Sledding for Big Names on Day 1a at WinStar
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.
. The 
on the turn only improved his opponent's hand and the 
on the river bricked off for Kempe, sending him to the rail.
and the action checked to Ho who continued for 5,300. Only the button called and the 
. A player in the small blind called, and the third player in the pot tanked a bit and folded. 
for trips but the small blind had a boat with 
.
and a player in middle position with 
and the river the 
, giving Sowell queens full. He had just under 115,000, covering the player with the nut flush draw, who had about 100,000. The player with kings sent over the full amount and Sowell moved to about 450,000.
and Banghart was less than pleased.
, there was 33,000 in the middle, dwarfing Allen Kessler's remaining stack of 14,000 or so. His lone opponent in the pot shoved all in to put him at risk. 
for a set. Kessler flicked in his 
