McCormick Tries to Keep Rolling on Home Turf, Catches Levin for Lead
For almost all of Day 1a of World Series of Poker Circuit Ameristar St. Charles $1,700 Main Event, it seemed nearly a lock that Matthew Levin would bag the chip lead.
However, like a thoroughbred picking up speed as he thundered down the final stretch, Austin McCormick used a final charge to blast to the finish and bag the chip lead. He scored the final elimination when pocket sevens held up against ten-eight suited to wind up with 557,000, by far the most of the final 18.
That number forced a hard stop with just over 49 minutes left in the final level of the night, 2,000/4,000/4,000, as 108 entries were logged.
McCormick got his stack cooking earlier in the day with a flush-over-flush cooler of Heath Alcorn, who was no good with jack-high hearts against king-high. He has been on a roll over the course of the last couple of HPT Main Events in the St. Louis area, finishing fourth and sixth for more than $60,000 combined. He'll try to add to his $337K in tournament winnings with another deep run here at Ameristar.
Levin, meanwhile, finished with 423,000, giving him a massive cushion over third-place Jorden Helstern's 243,000. Others bagging included Greg Wood (200,000), Michael Hudson (156,000), Craig Welko (148,000) and Keith Heine (108,000).
Plenty of Circuit regs fired and bricked today as well, including Will Berry, Greg Jennings, Hamid Izadi, Brett Apter, Mike Shin and Jake Bazeley. They'll have another shot at a bag on Saturday's Day 1b, which gets going at 11 a.m. local time.
Come back to PokerNews then for more live coverage.
. Apter had an over with 
but bricked out on the 
board.
and Austin McCormick was all in from under the gun for about 50,000. What looked to have been the original bettor folded, and Alcorn went into the tank.
with a "nice hand," pushing her slightly covered stack into the middle and heading for the rail.
. Helstern bet 20,000, and after over a minute in the tank, his opponent called.
for two pair.
, Anderson bet 5,000 into 9,000 from the small blind and faced a shove by the player on his right. He got a count of 19,200 more and thought about 30 seconds before announcing a call.
, and the 
river kept him best.
and a player in the cutoff called. The big blind made it 5,500 and Wood called, as did the cutoff for a 
river. Action checked to the cutoff, and he shoved, covering both opponents. The big blind thought briefly and folded, and Wood rubbed his hands together and counted out his chips, 19,700. After about a minute, he announced a call.
and his opponent mucked what the dealer revealed to be 
