Day 1a of the inaugural MSPT Spade Poker Championship at FireKeepers Casino in Battle Creek, Michigan, is in the books with the first flight tallying 577 total entries, and the large field that entered came to play as action at the tables proved to be eventful from start to finish.

Almost 15 full levels were needed to hit the hard stop of 64 players as 11:41 minutes remained in Level 15 (3,000/6,000/6,000) when pens hit the slips, with Merritt Kuhn seizing the top with 684,000, edging out Michael Plesa (677,000), and Ilyas Muradi (665,000) for the top stack.

MSPT champ Bee Yang (597,000) was able to secure the final elimination of the night to burst the bubble, while WSOP bracelet winner Jean ‘Prince’ Gaspard (585,000) rounded out the top five stacks afte rthe first flight.

Other players to survive included Frank Lagodich (549,000), two-time MSPT champ Bobby Noel (477,000), MSPT Hall of Famer Josh Reichard (468,000), Matt Higgins (267,000), and 2022 FireKeepers champ Matt Davis (101,000), just to name a few.

Others who took their shot but fell on 1a include WSOP bracelet winner Keven Stammen, MSPT Hall of Famers Pat Steele, & Rob WazWaz, along with former champs Mike O’Neill, Matt Porter, and Allan Secord.

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 on 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 10:00 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 FireKeepers Casino!

MSPT 2025 Spade Poker Championship Remaining Schedule