Jolley Cracks Aces & Bags Chip Lead in Day 1a of RGPS Joplin; Winter & Lowery In the Mix
The first of four starting flights in the RunGood Poker Series (RGPS) Joplin $600 Main Event has reached an end with Arkansas' Brant Jolley bagging the chip lead with a stack of 741,000. He bagged the chip lead in rather spectacular fashion as he burst the bubble by cracking aces with running cards holding nine-four offsuit.
Jolley will have his work cut out for him when he returns for Day 2 as two of RunGood's biggest crushers, Daniel Lowery and Brian Winter, both found bags after battling it out at the same table. Also among the ten players who bagged Day 1a are Jordan Russell, Mark LaFata and Joseph Gatlin.
End of Day 1a Chip Counts
| RANK | PLAYER | CHIP COUNT | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brant Jolley | 741,000 | |
| 2 | Daniel Lowery | 447,000 | |
| 3 | Jordan Russell | 341,000 | |
| 4 | David McFeely | 221,000 | |
| 5 | Lucas Hughes | 181,000 | |
| 6 | Brian Winter | 164,000 | |
| 7 | Brandon Robinson | 114,000 | |
| 8 | Mark LaFata | 104,000 | |
| 9 | Joseph Gatlin | 72,000 | |
| 10 | Josh Friend | 52,000 |
The first of four starting flights kicked off at 6 p.m. and drew 81 runners on the quest for a piece of the $600 prize pool. Some of the players who couldn't find luck on Thursday were Rachel Sawyer, Rodney Spriggs, Deborah Phillips and content creator Ashley Frank, who had a chance to triple with Big Slick but couldn't pull ahead of an opponent's jacks.
Another player who couldn't find a bag, William Willis, had better luck with ace-king against the queens of Mark Martin, but neither player made it to bagging time.
Another highlight of the day was Winter, the current RGPS Player of the Year frontrunner, cracking ace-ten with seven-five after getting it in with an open-ended straight draw only to spike a pair on the river to double up.
There are still three more flights to go before Day 2, including Day 1b getting underway on Friday, April 12 at 6 p.m. local time. That flight will follow a similar structure as today's flight, with 30-minute blind levels starting with a level of 100/200/200.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team is on-site and will be back tomorrow for continued coverage of the RGPS Joplin Main Event.