Day 1a of the 2020 Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) Golden Gates $360 Regional Event saw a whopping 161 entries come up to the Golden Gates Casino and Poker Parlour on Wednesday. Those who entered came to play and the action at the tables proved to be eventful from start to finish.

Fifteen full levels were played to their completion after 20 players remained when three hands were drawn to end the night across the two tables left in play, just one elimination from hitting a hard stop. Over those three hands, three more players were eliminated and 17 players punched their ticket to Sunday’s Day 2.

Luis Rosa (641,000) leads the pack by a wide margin after finishing the night with an exclamation mark, earning one of the three aforementioned knockouts on the penultimate hand of the evening. The top five is rounded out by four other players who finished the day north of 300,000: John Taitt (399,000), Greg Geller (390,000), Lyman Woodworth, and Behrouz Keshtavar (328,000).

The action hit a new gear on final level of the evening, which saw the remaining players in the field ultimately drop from 26 down to 17. Chips flew across the room and stacks fluctuated accordingtly. Geller’s evening peaked at around 485,000, while Taitt, Woodworth, and Keshtavar all were beneficiaries of the wild action that ensued during the last half hour of play. Others to advance included Nate Zoller (251,000), Alexander Gross (242,000), James Callanan (99,000), and Jeff Granowsky (87,000).

Many players were not as fortunate. Danny Gonzales, Pat Pineda, Greg Collins, and Sammy Aweida were just a few who took their shot at a bag on Day 1a only to come up short. All who have yet to advance will have three more starting flights for further attempts.

PokerNews will be on hand for the rest of the weekend to bring you all of the action, so be sure to come back for Thursday’s Day 1b at noon local time:

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