Day 1a of The Mid-States Poker Tour $1,110 Main Event at Firekeepers Casino in Battle Creek, Michigan, has come to a close after seeing 580 entrants tallied.
Almost a full 16 levels were played to completion with the hard stop of 69 players being reached with 13:02 remaining in the level.
Typically, judging the chip leader comes down to the wire but that wasn't the case for Richard Roberts who sat atop the counts for majority of the evening and ended the night with a whopping 937,000.
Three-time WSOP bracelet winner Dash Dudley got a late start but built up a 617,000 stack which was good enough for second place.
Michael Quinn (503,000) was the only other player to bag north of 500k while Praise Ogwo (481,000), and John Simon (418,000) rounded out the top five stacks.
Among those to try and fall on 1a include MSPT Hall of Famers Pat Steele, Aaron Johnson & Josh Reichard, along with two-time MSPT champs Ken Baime & Greg Himmelbrand.
Those players, as well as any newcomers, have two more starting flights to jump back into action.
Day 1b will kick off at Noon local time Friday, while the third and final flight, Day 1c, will take place at the same time on Saturday.
The surviving players from each flight will then return at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday to play down to a winner.
Join us tomorrow as we continue to bring you all the action and eliminations straight from the tournament floor of the FireKeepers Casino.