Robert Mitchell Leads, Mike Shin Busts Late on Day 1a of HPT St. Louis
Day 1a of the Heartland Poker Tour (HPT) Hollywood Casino St. Louis $1,650 Main Event attracted 48 runners, but after 15 levels of play, just six remained with freshly minted bracelet winner Robert Mitchell and his stack of 418,000 leading the way.
Mitchell took down Event #37: $800 No-Limit Hold'em Deepstack this past summer at the WSOP for a windfall of $297,537. He'll be looking to add to that with an HPT title in St. Louis and put himself in good position after Day 1a, the first of three starting flights.
Mitchell accumulated chips all throughout the day to eventually end the night as the chip leader. He busted the likes of Chris Tryba when Tryba tried shoving ace-nine over his open for about 18 big blinds and Mitchell called with ace-jack, with the board running out clean for him.
Next in line is Jeff Sauer with his stack of (365,000), followed by Alexander Hoff (200,000), Jeffery Schroeder (167,000), Chris Moon (157,000), Jason Mangold (81,000), and Todd Sladek (49,000).
Moon is coming off an extremely impressive spring in which he won both HPT and MSPT titles and piled up over $400,000 in cashes. He's also got a second-place finish in HPT to his credit.
Some notable players to fall on Day 1a were former HPT St. Louis runner-up Keith Heine, Mike Shin, Charlie Dawson, and Ryan Dodson. Shin put in a good bid to find a bag but would be doomed when he barreled three streets for value with pocket queens and Mangold found a miracle backdoor straight after floating the flop with air.
The good news is all of those players can try again in the second flight if they so choose as Day 1b will kick off at 2 p.m. local time on Friday.
The surviving players will combine at 11 a.m. on Sunday to play down to the final table. Once again the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be on hand to capture all the action, so be sure to join us then.
