Day 1b of the Mid-States Poker Tour Meskwaki Main Event attracted 228 entries, which along with Day 1a's 181 brought the total field up to 409, just one short from both of the MSPT's last two visits to the venue. That created a $409,000 prize pool – well ahead of the advertised $300,000 guarantee – which will be distributed to the top 45 players with tomorrow's winner taking home $100,981.

The man from the Day 1b field best positioned to make a run at it is Brian Berthiaume, who bagged up the chip lead among the 41 survivors with 345,000, which is a bit behind Day 1a chip leader Muneer Ahmed, who advanced with 379,000. However, the big story of the day was the run of last year's champ Rich Alsup (pictured above), who will return tomorrow to defend his title with a stack of 182,500.

Others who bagged big stacks were Keith Heine (253,000), David Battani (245,000), two-time MSPT champ Dan Sun (237,000), and Timothy McReynolds (184,500).

Of course not everyone was so lucky. Among those to fall on Day 1b were MSPT bestbet Jacksonville Regional champ Blake Whittington; former MSPT Meskwaki champ Nick Jivkov; reigning MSPT Player of the Year Mark Hodge; MSPT Team Pro Matt Alexander; World Poker Tour Choctaw champ Jason Brin; European pro and winner of the 2016 Wynn Poker Classic Main Event Ludovic Geilich; PokerNews reporter Mo Nuwwarah, and 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event runner-up Darvin Moon, who got his chips in good holding ace-queen against ace-jack only to see a jack spike on the turn.

While a lot of notables fell by the wayside, plenty made it through to Day 2 including Omaha's Ryan Phan (158,000), Wisconsin's Rick Syverud (120,000), MSPT regular Jason Bender (102,500), Allen Kessler (68,500), Ben Keeline (42,000), TJ Ryan (38,000), and the short-stacked Phil Mader (23,500).

Day 2 will kick off at 11 a.m. local time on Sunday. It'll be a full day of action as the combined field of 71 survivors look to play through the money all the way down to a winner. We'll bring you all the action and eliminations straight from the tournament floor right here in the MSPT Live Blog, so be sure to join us then.