Myers Comes on Strong at End of Night to Lead Advancing 24 Day 1b Players

On Friday, Season 5 of the Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) continued with Day 1b action from FireKeepers Casino in Battle Creek, Michigan. The second of three starting flights attracted 127 entries, which was up from the 75 and 121 Day 1b entries the last two times the MSPT was in town.

Along with Day 1a’s 106 runners, the current field stands at 233 entrants with another starting flight to go, which means it will no doubt pass it’s previous record of 301 entries. After 14 levels of play, just 24 players remained with Carter Myers and his stack of 273,000 leading the way. That’s quite a bit more than Day 1a chip leader Ben Hammnett, who lead the advancing 18 players with 212,500.

Carter was short in the early stages of the tournament, but he hit a big-time heater at the end of the night. In one notable hand, which happened in the last level of the night, a player in middle position raised to 7,500 and a late-position player made the call. Myers three-bet to 20,400 from the big blind, the original raiser made the call, and the late-position player folded. The flop was and Myers led out for 12,500. His opponent made the call and the turn was the . Myers checked to his opponent who went all in and Myers snap-called, showing . His opponent was behind with jacks and wafted as the hit the river.

Of course not everyone was so lucky. World Series of Poker bracelet winner and Heartland Poker Tour champ Adam Friedman was playing his first-ever MSPT event, but he ended up exiting in Level 7 (250/500/50). According to Friedman, he raised to 1,000 under the gun with and Wisconsin’s Ken Payne three-bet to 2,500 from the button. Friedman responded with a four-bet to 5,200, Payne called, and the flop came down with two diamonds.

Both players checked, and then Friedman put out a bet on the turn. Payne called and ended up moving all in after Friedman checked when a second appeared on the river. Friedman called off with his aces and kings, but it was no good as Payne had gotten extremely luck to make trips with . Friedman stated that he would return on Day 1c, while Payne went on to bag up 96,500.

Others who hit the rail on Day 1b were “Wild Bill” Romer, DJ Hirko, Rob Wood, Rick Terrill, Aaron Wallace, Rob Robitaille, Scott Miller, Tyler Caspers, Bruce “The Hammer” Swart, Nick Jivkov, and Justin Rice.

Rice’s demise came in just two hands, the first of which was losing a race with Big Slick to pocket jacks. A short time later in Level 11 (600/1,200/200), Rice opened the action with a raise to 2,700 from under the gun, which received two callers including Dee Bell in the big blind. The flop saw Bell, the last woman in the field, check and Rice continued for 4,200. Both his opponents called, the was put out on the turn, and Bell took the initiative and led out for 11,000. Two calls followed, the river blanked, and Bell fired out 22,000.

Rice moved all in for roughly 28,000, the other player folded, and Bell called with for the nuts. Rice showed for a set, and just like that he went from 100,000 in chips to out of the tournament.

While many fells, a select few made it through to Day 2 including MSPT Majestic champ Ken Baime (179,000), Jason Zarleng (186,000), and Dustin Hargis (181,500), just to name a few.

Day 1c is set to kick off at Noon local time on Saturday. Of course the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be on hand to bring you all the action and eliminations, so be sure to check back then. In the meantime, check out this PokerNews Impromptu with the aforementioned Adam Friedman, who talks about playing his first-ever MSPT, this summer’s WSOP, and more.