Day one of the $5,000 championship event at Horseshoe Southern Indiana, ended with David Kopacz leading with 107.900 chips. Kopacz was the winner of the $1,000 no-limit event just the day before. Close behind is his wife Stacy. David may have more chips, but he credits his wife as being a much better player. In fact, he only started poker two years ago when, in an effort to wean him off slot machines, she paid for both of them to attend the Camp Hellmuth poker boot camp. For a while they were at the same table today.
There is a near dead-heat for second place with Jamin Stokes, Stacy Kopacz and Len Ashby holding 90,500, 90,400 and 90,000 respectively
Day one ended a little before 10 p.m., and the remaining players will return at noon tomorrow to play down to the final nine.
Perhaps the most recognizable player here was Bernard Lee, whose 1.3 million in tournament cashes includes a 13th-place finish in the 2005 WSOP main event. He is also the poker columnist for the Boston Herald and ESPN.com and has his own poker radio show. He was an early chip leader after taking down a big pot with pocket aces, but was down to 10,000 when his A-K lost to pocket queens.
Here are the chip counts going into day 2:
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David Kopacz
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107,900
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Jamin Stokes
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90,500
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Stacy Kopacz
|
90,400
|
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Len Ashby
|
90,000
|
|
Derek Whelan
|
88,600
|
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Kenny Hicks
|
60,100
|
|
Chad Hahn
|
56,400
|
|
Joey Couden
|
52,200
|
|
Bryan Sapp
|
50,500
|
|
Steve Lewis
|
49,100
|
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Timothy Van Sant
|
48,100
|
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Ray Lynn
|
45,700
|
|
Jerry Martin
|
43,700
|
|
Justin Wallace
|
41,800
|
|
Bob Cole
|
41,500
|
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Samuel Oberlin
|
39,700
|
|
Perry Cain
|
38,600
|
|
Tue Phan
|
38,100
|
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Arthur Evans
|
35,100
|
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Chris McMillian
|
29,000
|
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Jeff Maiden
|
27,000
|
|
Adam Friedman
|
27,000
|
|
Larry Romine
|
22,500
|
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Dean Schultz
|
16,100
|
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Pat Madden
|
15,400
|
|
Jason Dewitt
|
13,900
|
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Bryan Lewis
|
4,000
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