Day 1A of the latest MSPT Potawatomi – the eighth Main Event held here since 2014 – drew 312 runners to downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin. That set the record for largest opening flight in event history. After 14 levels of play, 55 players remained with Chicago’s James Casen and his stack of 416,500 leading the way.

Others to bag big stacks were Voytek Glad (335,000), Shiva Dudani (245,000), Michael Vanderwoude (233,000), and Steve Stolzmann (199,000), who round out the top five.

Joining them at the end of the night were Amanda Heidbrick (188,000), Kevin Saul (183,000), MSPT Majestic Star champ Ken Baime (168,500), WPT World Champ Keven Stammen (137,000), Minnesota’s Rob Wazwaz (136,000), HPT champ Aaron Johnson (128,500), Chip Leader Coaching member Michael Younan (95,000), Loki Abboud (68,500), 2016 MSPT Wisconsin State Poker Champion Andy Rubinberg (37,500), and Byron Ziebell (29,500).

Not everyone was so lucky. Among those to play and fall on Day 1A were Kimo Sabe Mezcal MSPT Season 8 Player of the Year Chris Meyers, Madison Poker Community’s Mike Hanson, World Poker Tour champ Ravi Raghavan, and two-time MSPT champs Jeremy Dresch and Blake Bohn. Likewise, Rich Alsup and Mark Hodge, who finished as the MSPT Seasons 7 and 6 Players of the Year, both hit the rail on Friday night.

Day 1B will kick off at 4 p.m. on Saturday. The $300K guarantee has already been surpassed, so now it’s just a matter of how big the prize pool will grow. Join us tomorrow as we bring you all the action straight from the floor of Potawatomi Casino & Hotel.