Hollywood Casino St. Louis

A total of 293 entrants found their ways into play today in the second starting day of The Missouri State Championship $1,110 Main Event at Hollywood Hotel and Casino in St Louis. The total number of entrants now sits at 435, blowing the $300,000 prize pool guarantee out of the water, and with another flight still to play, it is likely to double it. Only 36 players survived from this flight to advance to Day 2.

At the end of the day it was Lance Vanderheide who ended up with the overall tournament chip lead with 531,000. Vanderheide found himself emptying many seats at his table throughout the course of the day. The MSPT newcomer rose to the top of the chip counts early on and remained there as the day progressed and now comes into the second day with the overall tournament lead.

Day 1B Chip counts

Also finding their way through the day were last week’s runner up Jared Ingles (342,000) and Dejuante “DJ” Alexander (245,000). Ingles bagged a healthy stack and will have his eyes set on topping his score from last week, and Alexander will be looking to make another deep run just one week after the last deep run in an MSPT. They will join players like Michael McKuin (225,000), Bryan “White Sox” Skreens (186,000), Dakotah O’Dell (180,000), and Jeff Copeland (83,000), on the second day on Sunday February 5th at 11 am.

Players whose fortunes were not with them today included Aaron Johnson, Martin Kinder, Kevin Berthelsen, Jeff Grimes, and Roger Bennett. With the final flight beginning tomorrow, it seems likely they could make one final trip to the tournament area, in the hopes that they can claim the inaugural Missouri State Poker Championship.

Players in Day 1B played through the entire 15 levels, so the levels will revert to what had happened on Day 1A. Play ended with time left in Level 14 meaning that on Day 2, barring the final flight ending earlier, all players will return with 28:20 left on the clock and blinds returning at 2,000/4,000. After that blinds will resume as normal as they play for the newest spot in the list of MSPT champions.

A total of 36 players have bagged up for the night. A full recap with chip counts will be posted shortly.

Action was picked up with Dakotah O’Dell all in for his last 73,000 in the hijack, while an opponent in middle position had called to put him at risk.

Dakotah O’Dell:

Opponent:

The board ran out and the aces held up for O’Dell to take a much needed double up as the day winded to a close.

Dakotah O’Dell - 156,000

Lance Vanderhead raised to 12,000 form middle position which saw 2 players call. Another player moved all in from the big blind and Vanderhead called while the other players got out of the way.

Opponent:

Lance Vanderhead:

The board ran out and the kings could not improve as the chip leader got richer.

Lance Vanderhead - 672,000

Action was picked up cards on their back with Michael McKuin having called an all in for 49,000 to put another player at risk.

Opponent:

Michael McKuin:

The board ran out and the ace-jack held up as the superior hand to eliminate his opponent. McKuin now sits with over 100,000.

Michael McKuin - 143,000

A player in first position raised to 7,000 in first position and only Jared Ingles called in the big blind.

The flop of saw Ingles check to his opponent who continued for 5,000 which Ingles called.

The turn saw action check through to the river where Ingles bet 12,000 which had his opponent shaking their head. After some time he called and Ingles turned over for tens and nines with an eight kicker. It was good and last stop’s runner up looked to build a stack late in the night.

Jared Ingles - 245,000

Dejuante “DJ” Alexander raised to 6,000 from the cutoff and in the big blind, a player moved all in for 34,000 which Alexander snap-called.

Big blind:

Dejuante “DJ” Alexander:

The board ran out and the aces up were good for Alexander to win a decent sized pot by eliminating his opponent.

Dejuante “DJ” Alexander - 125,000

Action was picked up on the river with a significant pot brewing between David Reed in the small blind and another player on the button.

With a board reading Reed checked to his opponent on the button who moved all in for 29,000 effective and Reed snap-called.

David Reed:

Button:

Reed had flopped a full house and turned quads to have an ironclad lock on the hand. He received the full double as tablemate Andy Rogowski asked jokingly “did you like the flop?”

David Reed - 99,000