Flight 1A ($75,000 GTD): First Flight In The Books

$130 No Limit Hold'em ($75,000 GTD)

Level 16 (Blinds 3,000/6,000/500

Total Flight 1A Entries: 83

Total Entries: 83

Flight 1A Players Remaining: 8

Flight 1A Chipleader Raymond Ruszkowski (Miami, FL)

From the moment Raymond Ruszkowski (Miami, FL) ran out perfect to win a four-way all-in, this opening flight seemed to be all about Raymond.  That pot was worth over (100) big blinds at the moment, which is the type of hand that a player comes across once a tournament...but it was his first of two for the day.  It seemed that each hand he entered, Raymond either held the goods, or powered his way to wins via aggression.  There was even a moment when the blogger was willing to crown him the "bonus winner," with a handful of levels left to play.

Having covered tournaments for over (7) years now, we should have known better than to predict anything during a tournament.  A trio of players began to creep towards Ruszkowski's stack size, including Atanael Thomas, Harry Khutu, and Josh Wasserman...but after the final hand was dealt, Raymond Ruszkowski's name was still on top of the leaderboard.  His end of Flight 1A stack of 328,000 earned Raymond $500 (chip lead bonus), and will likely put him in the top ten heading into Day 2. 

Posted below are the official end of Flight 1A chip counts:

Raymond	Ruszkowski	328,000
Josh	Wasserman	306,500
Atanael	Thomas	220,000
Hari	Sukhu	204,000
Karin	Powsner	170,000
Soren	Morales	123,500
Rafael	Ramos	110,000
Devond	Marshal	42,000