Angelina Rich Bags Day 1b Lead at MSPT Meskwaki
Day 1b of the Mid-States Poker Tour Meskwaki Main Event drew 231 players, pushing the total number of runners to 410 after two days. Angelina Rich bagged the Day 1b chip lead with 274,000, but Yousri "Chicago" Ali from Day 1a will take the overall chip lead into Day 2 with 309,500.
Rich, a Seattle, WA, native who has found a lot of success in International tournaments, is fresh off of her first-place win at the MSPT Venetian in Las Vegas this summer. Rich is not only the first female winner of a MSPT event, but she also won the largest first prize in MSPT history, having taken home $304,386.
Rich also has an impressive $345,667 in total live earnings over the course of her poker career, and is certainly having a stellar year to say the least. In addition to her recent MSPT win in June, she also took first in an Aussie Millions event in January of this year.
Rich started off her chip climb in Level 13 when she knocked a player out with the versus the . Rich hit the 100,000-chip mark after the board ran out . She also knocked out MSPT team pro Nick Pupillo in the last level of the night with versus . They got it all in on a board, and the river sealed Pupillo's fate after failing to improve his hand.
Another MSPT team pro, Blake Bohn, started the day off by hitting trip eights, chipping him up to 31,500. After that first hand of the day, he contiued to climb without ever falling below starting stack for the remainder of the day. Bohn will return for Day 2 with 189,500 in chips.
Other players from this flight who moved on to Sunday's Day 2 included Tom Hammers (85,000), MSPT Canterbury champion Peixin Liu (72,500), Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler (71,500), former MSPT Meskwaki champion Terry Ring (63,000), Dave Gonia (64,500), and Craig Casino (49,500).
Play resumes on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. local time at Level 15 (1,500/3,000/500), and PokerNews will again be on hand to see who is crowned the latest MSPT champion.