Day 1A of the MSPT Canterbury Park – the venue that played host to the first-ever tour stop back in 2009 – drew 222 entrants, which surpassed the previous best opening flight of 219 entries. After 14 levels of play, just 38 remained with Loki Abboud and his stack of 323,500 leading the way.
Abboud is seeking his fourth MSPT Main Event cash, which includes two final table appearances. His best finish to date is sixth here at Canterbury Park last December, good for $17,270. In April 2015, he also final tabled this event but bowed out in 10th place for $5,403.
Rounding out the top five stacks were professional soccer player Bernardo Anora (306,000), #MSPT100 champ Jason Ramos (290,500), Mickey Stuefen (214,000), and three-time MSPT champ Carl Carodenuto (195,000), who won two of his titles here at Canterbury Park.
Others to bag and tag the were Gennady Shimelfarb (108,500), Tony Hartmann (89,000), Katie Gebhart (87,500), reigning champ Jon Kim (81,500), Judd Greenagel (80,500), and Dan “DQ” Hendricksn (78,500).
Of course, not everyone was fortunate enough to survive. Among those to try and fall were 2004 World Series of Poker Main Event champ Greg Raymer; 2016 MSPT Iowa State Poker Champ John Sun; MSPT Pros Blake Bohn, Matt Alexander, and Matt Kirby; Minnesota Poker Hall of Famer Mike Schneider; and a slew of former champs including Luke Arora (MSPT Season 7 Running Aces), Kou Vang (MSPT Season 2 Canterbury Park), Rodger Johnson (MSPT Season 3 Running Aces), and Erv Bjerga (MSPT Season 6 Running Aces).
All of those players will have the chance to try again tomorrow as the Day 1B flight will kick off at 4 p.m. local time. Before that at 10:30 a.m., a last-chance $250 satellite will be held for those looking to get into the tournament on the cheap.