The first of three starting flights in the 2018 MSPT Michigan State Poker Championship at FireKeepers Casino drew 299 entries (the largest 1A flight in venue history). With two more flights to go – 1B and 1C will begin at Noon local time on Friday and Saturday respectively – the field is on pace to be the biggest ever, thus surpassing a seven-figure prize pool for the fourth time in a row!

After 16 levels of play, just 39 bagged chips on Day 1A with Isaac Kratchman (pictured) and his stack of 384,500 leading the way. Others to bag big were Randy Bullen (298,500), MSPT Hall of Famer Kou Vang (298,000), poker pro Maurice Hawkins (274,000), and Jason Mangold (257,500), who round out the top five.

They were joined by the likes of MSPT Season 7 Meskwaki champ Keith Heine (194,000), Jimmy Ray (136,000), Ron Kruk (112,000), 2017 MSPT Iowa State Poker Champion Carter Myers (105,000), and Royce Matheson (64,000).

Among those to try and fall on 1A were 2016 MSPT Michigan State Poker Champ Brett Blackwood, current MSPT Season 9 POY points leader Aaron Johnson, poker pro Nick Pupillo, MSPT Season 4 POY Pat Steele, World Poker Tour champ Ravi Raghavan, 2015 MSPT Michigan State Poker Champ Michael Ferrorotti, and MSPT Season 5 POY Mike Deis.

Day 1B will kick off at Noon local time on Friday, October 12. As usual, we’ll be there the entire time to capture all the action straight from the tournament floor, so be sure to join us then.