Brian Frye Leads as 14 Players Advance from Day 1a of HPT Columbus
On the Heartland Poker Tour’s first-ever visit to Hollywood Casino Columbus, 103 runners took part in the first of three starting flights in the $1,650 HPT Main Event. After 15 levels of play on Day 1a, just 14 remained with Brian Frye and his stack of 537,000 leading the pack.
Others to bag big stacks were Abdul Amer (469,500) and arguably one of the biggest names in the field in Nick Guagenti, who currently sits 20th on Ohio’s all-time money list with more than $1 million in tournament earnings. He made it through with 433,500. Rounding out the top five were Keith Thurman (260,000) and Vitaliy Neymar (220,500).
Top 10 Day 1a Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brian Frye | 537,000 |
| 2 | Abdul Amer | 469,500 |
| 3 | Nick Guagenti | 433,500 |
| 4 | Keith Thurman | 260,000 |
| 5 | Vitaliy Neymar | 220,500 |
| 6 | Kwynn Richards | 217,500 |
| 7 | Darwin Smith | 180,000 |
| 8 | Anthony Kelly | 174,500 |
| 9 | Greg Ruckel | 160,500 |
| 10 | Patrick Phillips | 130,000 |
Others to advance to Sunday’s Day 2 were Kwynn Richards (217,500), Anthony Kelly (174,500), Ryan Kalb (122,000), Matt Radcliffe (96,500), and Scott Dehm (14,000), who left with two and a half hours to go an saw his 100K stack whittled down by the blinds and antes.
Among those to fire and fall on 1a wereHenry Zhou, Iverson Snuffer, Michael Hahn, Mike Sabbia, Justin Boggs, Bryant Miller, Caleb King, and WSOP bracelet winner Adam Friedman.
For Snuffer, he busted in Level 10 (600/1,200/1,200) after flopping a set of tens only to discover his opponent had flopped a set of jacks. He indicated he’ll return on Friday for the 1b flight.
Day 1b will take place at Noon on Friday followed by 1c on Saturday at the same time. The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be on hand to capture all the action from both flights, so be sure to tune in all weekend for all the HPT action you can handle.
