Welcome to Day 1b of Mid-States Poker Tour Tropicana Evansville
The Mid-States Poker Tour's second trip to Tropicana Evansville has seen one flight in the books, so there's one more to go: Day 1b is scheduled to kick off at 4 p.m. local time here on the Ohio River.
Day 1a saw 110 runners take their chances and just 19 advance to Sunday's Day 2, led by Craig Spalding, who ran it up to 283,000. Other notable survivors included MSPT Team Pro Nick Pupillo, two-time circuit ring winner Josh Turner, and last year's runner-up here, Alex Yen.
Some of the players who failed to advance, and players we'll likely see fire again on Day 1b: Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler, Jonathan Dimatteo, Jason Zarlenga, Matt Alexander, Mark Hodge, Adam Friedman, Adam Lamphere, and Steve Anderson. Hodge has another golden opportunity to gain Player of the Year ground on Blake Bohn, who is skipping this event.
Once again, players will get 20,000 in starting stacks and start with blinds of 50/100. Levels go up every 40 minutes, and each player gets one reentry. The reentries will be cut off at the beginning of Level 10, with breaks between every three levels. At the conclusion of 14 levels, players will bag and the Day 2 field will be set.