A star-studded field took to the felt just outside the Twin Cities for the MSPT 157 Main Event at Canterbury Park and Sam Chase came out on top to lead the way in Day 1A.

Chase finished strong to put away 355,000 chips for the top total of the evening. Kanat Ozturk stood tall in second bagging 214,500 and Zephaniah Baer took third with 195,000. Brian Clark wound up in fourth with 184,500 and Tony Moses rounded out the top five with 176,500. Other notables who got through the flight included Gerald Cunniff (164,500), Ian Matakis (159,000) and Jason Seitz (86,500).

Quite a few notables did not survive the Day 1A field including all three MSPT Hall of Famers: Kou Vang, Aaron Johnson and Rich Alsup. Past MSPT Main Event Champions Blake Bohn, Jesse Rockowitz, Mark Sandness and Rob Wazwaz also missed out on advancing this evening. Other MSPT stalwarts who could not find their way to Day 2 included Alex Winter, Luke Blindert, Dan Favreau, Jeff Taylor, Nathan Fair, Brian Berthiaume, Todd Melander, Loki Abboud, Nghia “3 Putts” Le, John Reading and Eric Eelkema.

For the flight, 109 entries were recorded and 13 players advanced to Day 2. Two more starting flights remain on Friday and Saturday with both starting at 12 PM Central. All players who advance from the three starting flights will be back in action on Sunday for Day 2 starting at 11 AM Central.

We’ll be back tomorrow here on msptpoker.com for all the coverage of Day 1B plus the live stream of the final table on Sunday on twitch.tv/msptpoker. Congratulations to everyone who advanced and we’ll see you back here Friday at noon!