Michael Chilton Bags the Day 1b Lead of the $800 RGPS St. Louis Main Event; Brian Jones Close Second
After 16 levels of play, the field of 150 hopefuls was whittled down to just 18 in Day 1b of The $800 RunGood Poker Series Main Event at Hollywood Casino in St. Louis, Missouri. These players will join those from yesterday’s flight, as well as the two groups of players from flights 1c and 1d, to play Day 2 on Sunday for their chance at the biggest piece of the $200,000 guaranteed prize pool.
Leading the way is Michael Chilton, who put 567,000 in the bag to end the day. The Mississippi native started building a stack early on when he became the first player to cross the 300k mark in chips. This is Chilton's first RGPS cash and he'll look to make a deep run come Sunday.
Day 1b Top Ten Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Hometown | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Chilton | Paducah, MS | 567,000 |
| 2 | Brian Jones | Louisville, KY | 550,000 |
| 3 | Mike Hurley | St. Louis, MO | 494,000 |
| 4 | Tanner Pray | Lake St. Louis, MO | 380,000 |
| 5 | Jeff Levinson | St. Louis, MO | 378,000 |
| 6 | Britt Williams | St. Charles, MO | 336,000 |
| 7 | Tyler Buhlig | St. Louis, MO | 295,000 |
| 8 | Paul Fehlig | St. Louis, MO | 248,000 |
| 9 | Justin Coliny | Wentzville, MO | 238,000 |
| 10 | Ryan Rogers | St. Louis, MO | 226,000 |
Followed closely behind is Brian Jones, who bagged up just about a big blind less than Chilton. Jones, a long-time tournament veteran with more than $350k in cashes according to The Hendon Mob, will be looking to top his prior best RGPS finish of 31st at RGPS Bossier City, and become a part of RGPS history.
A few players who may be looking to give it one more go tomorrow in hopes of finding a bag are RGPS regs Craig Welko and Jerod Smith, as well as Jason Mendoza, who went out on the Day 1a bubble.
Play ended with 32:00 minutes left in Level 16, with blinds at 5,000/10,000 and a 10,000 big blind ante. These 18 players will return on Sunday, May 5 at noon local time to join the players from the other flights and play down to a winner. Anyone who didn't find a bag, and even those who did, are welcome to play the remaining flights in their quest to make Day 2.
Players that bag multiple Day 2 stacks will receive a min-cash for each stack and will play the larger of the two stacks on Sunday.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for all updates regarding The RunGood Poker Series.