The 2016 Mid-States Poker Tour Michigan State Poker Championship at FireKeepers Casino shattered records. With 884 entrants (195 on Day 1a; 338 Day 1b; and 351 Day 1c) taking to the felt, the $1,100 buy-in Main Event not only became the largest tournament in Michigan history, it also marks the largest non-Vegas event for the tour in its seven-season history.

The record-breaking event, which shattered its $300,000 advertised guarantee by creating an $884,000 total prize pool, surpassed May’s MSPT FireKeepers Main Event, which had set its own record with 820 entries. On Sunday, 179 players will return to Day 2 action, each looking to make the money at the top 81. If they do, they will secure a minimum payday of $2,226, but of course everyone will have their eyes firmly fixed on the $188,314 first-place prize (though the $114,701 consolation prize for the eventual runner-up isn’t bad either).

As for Day 1c, it proved to be the largest of the three starting flights, but after 14 levels of play, just 67 players remained with Nevada Saad (pictured above) and his stack of 338,500 leading the way. Interestingly, Saad also bagged the chip lead on Day 1c of May’s event, though with “just” 262,500. Still, that was enough to give him the overall chip lead heading into Day 2, and amazingly he’s done it again in back-to-back events as he etched out Casey Carroll (287,500) and Parris Collins (318,000), who had finished as the Days 1a and 1b chip leaders respectively.

Another exciting story from Day 1c was that of reigning Michigan State Poker Champ Michael Ferrarotti, who chip up steadily through the night and bagged 106,500. That means a title defense could be in the cards. However, Ferrarotti wasn’t the only Michigan State Poker champ to advance as Ryan Dykhouse, who won the inaugural event in 2014, survived the night with a stack of 82,000.

Others who made it through to Day 2 were Kirby Rogers (304,500), Eric Stocz (185,500), Imari Love (150,500), “Wild” Bill Romer (127,000), Jeff Fielder (117,000), Mike Holm (110,500), MSPT Season 4 Player of the Year Pat Steele (78,500), MSPT Season 5 POY Mike Deis (65,500), Aaron Steury (59,000), and Jason Smith (50,500), who finished third in May’s event.

Of course not everyone could be so fortunate. Among those to try and fail on Day 1c were MSPT Wisconsin State Poker champ Andy Rubinberg; John Sun, who won’t be adding any points to his MSPT Season 7 Player of the Year lead; and two-time MSPT champ Jason Zarlenga, just to name a few.

At 11 a.m. on Sunday, the remaining players will return to play down to a winner. The final table will be broadcast LIVE (15-minute delay) worldwide on msptpoker.com using RFID technology allowing all viewers to see the hole cards. In addition, all the action will be live reported right here in the MSPT live blog. Be sure to join us then to see who becomes the 2016 MSPT Michigan State Poker Champion!