Kenneth McKeown Leads 88 Day 1A Survivors

In the eighth level of the night, Kenneth McKeown (pictured) was sitting on 110,000, but thanks to a hot run of cards and solid play, he finished atop the Day 1A leaderboard. He amassed a monstrous 897,000 stack by nights end, which was a long way from Austin Srur, who ended second on the totem pole with his 476,500 in chips.

McKeown made it seem effortless, steamrolling the last levels of the night to take overtake the lead from Srur, a lead that was greatly extended when he dropped Demo Kiropoulos from the field with a turned flush, besting the flopped two-pair of Kiripoulos. McKeown continued his heater right up until the end of the night, picking up cowboys to eliminate another player and close out the first day here in Choctaw.

There were a total of 362 registration slips sold here on Day 1A, surpassing the the $1 million guarantee that was set by over 200K on the first day of this event. Day 1B is still yet to come, so a massive prize pool is on the horizon here during the WPT Choctaw Main Event.

The full list of official chip counts can be found by clicking here. Here are the top 10:

1. Kenneth McKeown – 897,000
2. Austin Srur – 476,500
3. Kailun Sun – 403,000
4. Stephen Brown – 390,000
5. Arthur Morris – 376,500
6. Adam Adler – 350,000
7. Jared Hemingway – 342,000
8. Jerry Gilchrist- 321,500
9. Zachary Abbott – 320,000
10. Tony Dunst – 318,500

There were 88 players who bagged up at the end of the night, with an average chip stack around 165,000 (66 big blinds). They’ll return on Sunday at noon for Day 2 where they will combine with the Day 1B survivors to play ten 60-minute levels.

Day 1B begins tomorrow at 12:00 pm, with registration open until the start of Level 9 (around 10:00 pm).

Stay tuned to WPT.com for continuing coverage of WPT Choctaw.

Photography by Joe Giron / PokerPhotoArchive.com

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