Busquet Flattens Competition on Day 1b/c to Bag Huge Lead at Hard Rock Tulsa
Olivier Busquet has an array of poker accomplishments that would make most players in a high roller tournament envious. So, it's no surprise that when he took a seat in Day 1b of RunGood Hard Rock Tulsa's $675 Main Event, he put on a display of poker prowess that enabled him to turn a starting stack of 20,000 into 382,500.
That's good for a huge chip lead after the last of three flights, Day 1c, bagged up for the night. Mike Berger's 232,000 led the 33 players who made it through Day 1c, and combined with the 24 survivors of Day 1b and the 17 who made it through Thursday's Day 1a, that's a total of 74 players who booked tickets to Saturday's Day 2.
Busquet, who counts wins on the World Poker Tour and the European Poker Tour High Roller circuit among his $6.8 million in cashes, won a huge pot in Level 10 (800/1,600/200). He was against an opponent in the big blind who check-called 4,000 on a 
flop and 7,500 more on the 
turn. On the 
river, the big blind bet out 8,000 and called off when Busquet put him all in for about 24,000 more. Busquet quickly turned over the 
for the nuts and took the pot.
Fellow Day 1b player Gil George is Busquet's nearest competitor with 312,000. Others who made it through the two Friday flights included Mina Greco (129,000), Chris Conrad (126,500), Duma Lowery (90,000), Sam Abernathy (80,000), Michael Sanders (77,500), Jonathan Gaviao (55,000), Will Berry (58,500), and Tommy Vedes (48,500).
Day 1b drew 118 runners and Day 1c 130, so the total through three flights came to 336, and the winner of the tournament will bank $45,595 plus an added $10,000 seat to the World Series of Poker Main Event.
Day 2 commences Saturday at noon local time, so come right back to PokerNews to see who will take it down.