Tepen Bags Heaps as Five Advance From Day 1a of HPT St. Louis
Day 1a of the HPT Hollywood Casino St. Louis $1,650 Main Event saw 41 entrants take to the felt, and after nearly fourteen levels of play, only five players managed to find a bag, with Ryan Tepen and his 402,000 chip stack leading the way.
Tepen, a two-time WSOPC ring winner with nearly $1 million in live tournament earnings according to Hendon Mob, was a late arrival to the Day 1a flight, but made his presence known quickly when he busted Mark Koeln after finding a full house on the river. This pot brought Tepen's stack to nearly 200 big blinds just after the dinner break, and he eventually pushed near the half-million chip marker before his stack eventually settled around 400,000 for the last few levels of the evening.
Igor Holdaiy (295,000) had a swingy day on the felt, as his stack was under ten big blinds during Level 12 (1,000/2,000/2,000), but he managed to quickly spin up his stack to end the night. WSOP Bracelet winner Brett Apter (270,000) closed the night at his peak when his aces sent John Thornton and his straight draw home one spot shy of a bag, while Thomas Rennier (175,000) and Season XV HPT $2,500 Championship Event runner-up Christopher Audrain (88,000) round out the five players who bagged up for the evening.
HPT Season XV Player of the Year Nick Pupillo never got any traction today and found himself eliminated before the dinner break. Gerald Claunch started the day off hot as the first player to hit six-figures, but cooled off considerably to also fall short of a bag. Other notables unable to make it through include Michael Esquivel, Josh Tucker, Ian Nelson, and Vincent Moscati.
The next opportunity for players to find a bag for Day 2 will be tomorrow's Day 1b flight, which will kick off at 2 p.m. local time. A third and final flight starts at Noon on Saturday, and all players that manage to bag up chips will return on Sunday at 11 a.m. to play down to the televised final table of nine. Expected to be in the field are Keith Heine, James Pupillo, and Maurice Hawkins, amongst a host of both new and familiar faces.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for continuing coverage as we get one step closer to crowning our latest HPT champion!