Mel Jackson was all-in and at risk from the small blind against a late position opponent on a flop board reading A♦6♣3♣.
Mel Jackson: 3♥3♦ 
Opponent: Q♣9♣
Jackson's opponent was on the flush draw, but his set of threes would improve to quads on the 3♠ turn, locking up the hand through the Q♠ river and securing him the full double-up
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
45,000
45,000
|
45,000 |
Six people called a pre-flop three-bet to 7,000 and Mark Lafata moved all-in for 31,000, getting called by three opponents. Lafata was the covering player.
Opponent: 10♥10♦
Opponent: 7♠7♦
Opponent: 5♣4♦
Mark Lafata: K♦J♣
The final board ran out A♠J♥2♥9♦8♠, completing a pair of jacks for Lafata, and sending him the massive pot.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
145,000
115,000
|
115,000 |
It’ll be opportunity number two for the 84 players that came out to play Day 1a of The $800 RGPS Main Event at Hollywood Casino in St. Louis, MO to secure a min-cash and move on to Day 2, Sunday, May 5th for their opportunity to get the biggest piece of the $200,000 guaranteed prize pool.
After an extended Day 1a bubble, the flight finished with ten hopefuls moving on to the second part of the tournament, which saw local player Kenny Allen putting 654,000 in the bag to end the day, right around a 2:1 lead over the rest of the field.
Rounding out the top three are Jason Aken with 378,000, followed closely behind by last year's RGPS St. Louis Main Event champ, Keith Heine, who bagged up 343,000.
| Place | Player | Hometown | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenny Allen | St. Charles, MO | 654,000 |
| 2 | Jason Aken | St. Charles, MO | 378,000 |
| 3 | Keith Heine | St. Louis, MO | 343,000 |
| 4 | Brandon Butler | St. Louis, MO | 315,000 |
| 5 | Brian Ellebracht | St. Louis, MO | 270,000 |
| 6 | Mark Lafata | Lake St. Louis, MO | 178,000 |
| 7 | Cory Bogert | St. Louis, MO | 128,000 |
| 8 | Bradley Beetz | Hollister, CA | 101,000 |
| 9 | John Huening | New York, NY | 94,000 |
| 10 | Glen Gruner | St. Louis, MO | 94,000 |
We should expect to see some returning players from flight 1a who weren't able to secure a bag, like Jason Mendoza, who was eliminated on the bubble after he ran his queen-jack into the king-jack of Aken, RGPS reg Craig Welko, who fired early and often, but couldn't seem get any momentum going, and RGPS Player of the Year points leader Brian "TheGoldenBlazer" Winter, who will look to extend his lead before the end of the season next month.
Players begin with 30,000 in tournament chips and the blinds will start at 100/200 with a 200 big blind ante and increase every 30 minutes. There will be a 15-minute break after every four levels, and registration will be open until the start of Level 9, after which, the levels will move to 40 minutes, with a 15-minute break after every three levels.
Play will conclude once the field has shrunk to 12.5% remaining, in which players will then bag up for the night with the intention of returning to play on Day 2, Sunday, May 5 at 12 p.m. Qualifying Day 2 players may still play additional Day 1 flights, however they will have to play the bigger stack on Day 2. Each Day 2 stack is worth a min-cash.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for all updates regarding the RunGood Poker Series.
