Friday, August 10, 2018 9:11 PM Local Time
Jeff Trudeau Bags a Massive Chip Lead on Day 1A of the Harrah's Cherokee Main Event
Jeffrey Trudeau from his run in this year's WSOP Main Event
There were 409 entries through the first 12 levels of Day 1 in the Harrah's Cherokee Main event but at the end of the day only 80 players would make it through to Day 2. Leading the way at the end of the day was circuit regular Jeffrey Trudeau who bagged up 510,000 chips, over 100,000 more than his nearest competitor. Trudeau went on a heater right after dinner break, jumping from around 150,000 up to 400,000 in a short span of time before he finished the night as the chip leader.
In one of the later hands of the night, Trudeau got it all in with another player who was holding pocket kings on a jack high flop. Trudeau was holding ace-queen with a flush draw and he would bink his flush on the river to scoop another massive pot and to move into the lead.
Trudeau is hot off a deep run in the WSOP $10,000 Main Event where he finished 24th for $282,630 and he's looking to add to his list of poker accomplishments by adding a World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event title to the list. Trudeau is already a four-time ring winner with nearly $700,000 in tournament earnings.
Among other notables who bagged up big stacks on Day 1A were the likes of Robert Hankins (340,000), Charles Johnson (334,500), John Richards (319,000), Josh Reichard (300,500), and Ryan Phan (293,500). Coming in second was John Owens who bagged 359,500. Other notables with not as large stacks, but still returning for Day 2 include Jason Good, Jonathan Hilton, Hank Sitton, Sean Yu, Irene Carey, Scott Davies, and Bob Mather to name a few.
But for every hero who survived, there were many to fall. Some of those who didn't quite make it through to Day 2 yet include Bryan Devonshire, Marshall White, Kindah Sakkal, Will Berry, Ryan Jones, Ryan Leng, Mike Jukich, Vincent Moscati, David Pham and Kurt Jewell among others.
The remaining 80 players will return on Sunday, August 12 at noon where they will continue their quest to become the Harrah's Cherokee Main Event Champion. On Saturday, August 11, Day 1B will kick off where players will have a chance to register at least two more times. Action kicks back off at 11 a.m. local time and updates will be available throughout on WSOP.com.