Day 1 of the Inaugural Lone Star Poker Series blew away the expectations of Tour owner, Kim Stone, and Prime Social General Manager, Brent Pollack. The 3-day $360 buy-in Kickoff Event had a $75,000 guarantee that would need 250 runners to achieve. When anything is "Inaugural", you are taking at least a small risk. The final numbers after Flight 1A and 1B are 226. $67,000 of the guaranteed $75,000 has already come in. With two more starting flights, Lone Star Poker Series has a realistic shot at doubling their guarantee in the very first event of the series.

The common comment about the series and what it means so far is something similar to, "It's professional. It's transparent. It's what we have been asking for in Houston for years." There was always the fear that Houstonians wanted this sort of series, but may not show up when it started. Texas poker players are showing up to support this series and make sure this isn't the last time that an event like this is in the neighborhood.

Here are the Day 1 closing numbers and payouts:

Flight 1A - 108 total entries, 14 players made the money and 9 of those bagged chips for Day 2.

• 1st - 576,000 - Nicholas Torallba
• 2nd - 371,000 - Brian Barros Vazquez
• 3rd - 263,000 - Hai Ta
• 4th - 241,000 - Viet Vo
• 5th - 213,000 - Neil Ho
• 6th - 181,000 - Chy Ling
• 7th - 139,000 - Amir Soleymani
• 8th - 80,000 - Mark Hazard
• 9th - 72,000 - Ronald Emmett

Cashes from Day 1A

• 10th - $700 - Chanh Nguyen
• 11th - $700 - Reagan Blackmon
• 12th - $600 - Christopher Hall
• 13th - $600 - Minh Nguyen
• 14th - $600 - Andrew Dartez

Flight 1B - 118 total entries, 15 players made the money and 9 of those bagged chips for Day 2.

• 1st - 496,000 - Praise Ogwo
• 2nd - 460,000 - Steve Varela Moreno
• 3rd - 365,000 - Jason Gooch
• 4th - 273,000 - Jack Norris
• 5th - 201,000 - Derek Normand
• 6th - 173,000 - Douglas Thornton
• 7th - 165,000 - Chanwoo Jun
• 8th - 149,000 - Joseph Ortez
• 9th - 115,000 - Jonathon Ajlouny

Cashes from Day 1B

• 10th - $700 - Richard Castro
• 11th - $700 - David Valden
• 12th - $700 - Christopher Hall
• 13th - $600 - Eric Keener
• 14th - $600 - Rocky Hart
• 15th - $600 - Robert Cote

Flight 1C begins today at 11:00am and Flight 1D begins tonight at 6:00pm, each with 3.5 hours of Late Registration. If you were considering stopping by to be part of the Inaugural Lone Star Poker Series, you've still got time to join us!