Clements Holds Off McVicker and Tucker to Bag Day 1a Lead
RunGood Hard Rock Tulsa kicked off with the first of three starting flights in the $675 Main Event, and 88 runners turned up. When the chips were thrown in the bags after 12 30-minute levels, it was Randy Clements ending with 191,500 and the chip lead. Jesse McVicker (174,000) and Issac "Rungood" Tucker (163,000) also bagged hefty stacks among the 17 survivors.
Clements won a huge pot late in the night when he made an ace-high flush against Gabriel Attoun, who said he had trip eights on the paired board.
Tucker, meanwhile, ran up a huge stack on his first bullet but dusted it off to McVicker on a 
board in Level 8 (500/1,000/100). Tucker bet 8,000 and McVicker raised to 24,000, which prompted Tucker to drop in all of his large denomination chips, about 70,000, leaving himself just a few thousand back. McVicker shoved and Tucker sheepishly folded, saying he didn't think McVicker had anything, but McVicker showed him 
for a boat.
Tucker lost the remainder of his stack but quickly ran up another pile on his next and final bullet. He won a big pot off RunGood team pro Ray Henson during the final level of the night, Level 12 (1,200/2,400/400). Three players limped in, and Henson made it 10,000 to go from the small blind. Action folded to Tucker on the button, and he decided to see the flop, which came 
. Both players checked, and Henson check-called 10,000 on the 
turn. He check-called 20,000 more on the 
river, and Tucker showed him the 
.
Other players who bagged included Jon Bennett (132,500), Tripp Kirk (122,000), RunGood team pro Justin Gardenhire (99,500), and Henson (91,500).
Some of the players firing and missing were Tommy Vedes, Olivier Busquet, former RunGood champ Will Berry, and RunGood team pros Ross Bybee, Mina Greco, Sam Abernathy, Jonathan Gaviao, and Duma Lowery.
The two remaining Day 1 flights will play out Friday at noon and 7 p.m. local time, so be sure to come back to PokerNews to see who joins the 17 survivors from Day 1a in contending for the $100,000 guaranteed prize pool.