Ingram Dazzles During Day 1 of the Bar Poker Open Pro-Am
A jovial Day 1 of the $1,000 Pro-Am at the 2023 Bar Poker Open Vegas World Championships has come to an end and Ryan Hiller leads the final nine into Friday’s live-streamed final table.
The crowd of 199 entries for a unique event that attracted poker players from far and wide for a chance to play with poker professionals and personalities in a $1,000 tournament that caps off the 2023 Vegas World Championship series. The prize pool of $177,110 is shared among the top 25 players and the winner to take home $44,086.
A Few Familiar Faces
Among the familiar faces that stopped by were Limit Legend Ronnie Bardah, Conrad Simpson, Rob Kuhn, Jamie Kerstetter, Ryan Depaulo, Ana Marquez, Garry Gates, Veronica Brill, Ashley “Pokerface Ash” Frank and Melissa Schubert.
None of them were able to make it into the money, but Joey Ingram had a smasher of a day.
Ingram took a 7 a.m. flight into Vegas to make it to the tournament just as cards went into the air. That did not put Ingram off his stride one bit, and within a few levels he built a healthy stack - thanks to a hand in which he hit quads, as well as a number of other unlikely runouts. As the whiskeys got stronger, so did Ingram, and a late charge made him the outright chip leader for a good portion of the later levels.
Chicago Joey bowed out in 16th place and took home $2,719 for his early morning efforts.
Final Table Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Chip Count | Final Table Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ryan Hiller | 955,000 | 48 |
| 2 | Andrew Mackenzie | 840,000 | 42 |
| 3 | Clement Bonnant | 690,000 | 35 |
| 4 | Steven Rodriguez | 665,000 | 33 |
| 5 | Konstantinos Tsikopoulos | 620,000 | 31 |
| 6 | Frankie Zeta | 370,000 | 19 |
| 7 | Kevin Kent | 335,000 | 17 |
| 8 | Joseph Crowley | 295,000 | 15 |
| 9 | Jim Juvancic | 205,000 | 10 |
The Final Table
Hiller is a Michigan native and the proud owner of a WSOP gold bracelet from the $777 No-Limit Hold’em event on WSOP MI last July. He’s trailed in the second spot on the leaderboard by Andrew Mackenzie, a Las Vegas local and final table mainstay at tournaments throughout the valley.
The third spot belongs to Clement Bonnant, a French player that currently resides in Las Vegas. Bonnant can be seen all over the world, especially on the French Poker Series tour. He cashed in the FPS Paris Main Event in February and he won a tournament at the Battle of Malta in 2022.
Steven Rodriguez sits just behind Bonnant in fourth, while Konstantinos Tsikopoulos is in fifth and is the only other player with over 600,000 chips.
Frankie Zeta sits in sixth with just under 400,000. Zeta has won several tournaments at Maryland LIVE! and he has three rings from victories on the WSOP Circuit. Arizona native Kevin Kent is just behind Zeta in seventh.
Joseph Crowley and Jim Juvancic round out the final table as the short stacks. Crowley has had success on the World Poker Tour, including a final table appearance at the Choctaw stop in July of 2021 and a run to 13th at the Lucky Hearts Open that following January.
The final nine players will reconvene at 2 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom at Golden Nugget Las Vegas. There are approximately 19 minutes remaining in Level 19 with blinds at 10,000/20,000 with a 20,000 ante. Blind levels will increase to 60 minutes long at the completion of Level 19.
As always, the Bar Poker Open finale will be featured on the BPO live stream. Stay tuned to PokerNews tomorrow for a link to the televised final table.
Be sure to keep it with the PokerNews team for live updates from the floor of the Day 2 finale of the Bar Poker Pro-Am during the Grand Poker Series at Golden Nugget Las Vegas.