Marsha Adams Bags Day 1a Chip Lead at RGPS Tulsa Main Event
A fast and furious evening of action saw the final 17 players in Day 1a of the RunGood Poker Series Tulsa $600 Main Event bag chips for Day 2, led by Marsha Adams of Joplin, Missouri with 596,000 chips.
Those 17 players represent the top 12.5 percent of the 130-player Day 1a field, who have all guaranteed themselves at least a min-cash when they return for Day 2 on Sunday at noon local time.
The only other player to bag up more than 500,000 chips was Adam Higbee, who doubled up near the end of the night to boost his stack to its lofty endpoint.
Not far behind them though is Daniel Lowery, who is the all-time money leader in the state of Arkansas with over $2.2 million in career tournament earnings. He bagged up a very healthy 411,000 chips.
Top Ten End of Day 1a Chip Counts
| Place | Name | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marsha Adams | 596,000 |
| 2 | Adam Higbee | 542,000 |
| 3 | Daniel Lowery | 411,000 |
| 4 | Jesse Jones | 342,000 |
| 5 | Gabriel Attoun | 296,000 |
| 6 | Rance Chalakee | 273,000 |
| 7 | Christopher Allen | 198,000 |
| 8 | Scott Robertson | 198,000 |
| 9 | Kaleb Dunn | 197,000 |
| 10 | John Millsap | 192,000 |
Day 1a Action
While Adams, Higbee, and Lowery were all strong throughout the evening, it was late surges in the final level from Adams and Higbee that vaulted them to their places atop the leaderboard.
Adams was the recipient of Daniel Hughes’ 200,000 chip stack when she won a flip with pocket tens against Hughes’ ace-queen. She added to her stack further after that to solidify her end-of-night chip lead.
Higbee gave her a run for that title in the final minutes of play when he earned a huge double-up with pocket queens against Joseph Ferguson and his pocket jacks.
They’ll have the stacks to chase Saturday when the final two opening flights are played with Day 1b starting at noon local time and Day 1c kicking off at 6 p.m.
Among those that will have to try again Saturday after failing to make it through Friday’s flight are RunGood ambassadors Ray Henson, Kris Burchfield, and Julie Cornelius. Other notables that will need to try to find a bag Saturday include former WPT Choctaw Main Event runner-up William Berry and winner of the RunGood Tulsa Studio Ticket event, John Reynolds.
Two More Chances Saturday
As mentioned, two more opening flights will be played Saturday with the top 12.5 percent of those flights joining Friday’s survivors in Day 2. As well as those who didn’t survive Day 1a, any who did but would like another shot at building a larger stack will have the opportunity to do so. They would then forfeit any smaller stacks, but would also collect another min-cash.
Play ended with 11:47 left in level 13, which will be the starting point of Day 2 Sunday unless either of Saturday’s flights end at an earlier point.
Saturday will also see the $100,000 guarantee easily surpassed and likely smashed to build a massive prizepool.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for continued Main Event coverage from the incredible Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Tulsa until a champion is crowned Sunday.