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
| Rank |
Name |
Chip Count |
Hometown |
| 1 |
Lance Vanderheide |
531,000 |
Sigel, IL |
| 2 |
Damian Gum |
453,000 |
Granite City, IL |
| 3 |
Andrew VanHoe |
416,000 |
Moline, IL |
| 4 |
Jared Ingles |
342,000 |
Prospect, LA |
| 5 |
William Hendricks |
306,000 |
Glen Carbon, IL |
| 6 |
Andros Ioakimides |
300,000 |
St. Louis, MO |
| 7 |
Brian Battistone |
297,000 |
Las Vegas, NV |
| 8 |
William Bodine |
281,000 |
St. Louis, MO |
| 9 |
David Reed |
263,000 |
Mattanan, MI |
| 10 |
Ross Neumann |
260,000 |
St. Louis MO |
|
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.