Day 1 of the 2018 MSPT Wisconsin State Poker Championship attracted 156 runners to Potawatomi’s Hotel & Casino, but after 15 levels of play, just 26 survived the night with Joseph McArthur and his stack of 274,500 leading the way.

Others to bag big stacks were three-time MSPT champ Blake Bohn (233,000), Bradley Jansen (212,500), Jordan Moan (187,000), and Igor Hot (165,000), who round out the top five.

They were joined by Cody Brinn (157,500), 2015 MSPT Wisconsin State Poker Champ Ben Wiora (124,000), Larry Wagner (64,500), MSPT Season 4 Ho-Chunk champ Josh Reichard (55,500), and Aaron Johnson (32,000).

With just this stop and December’s season finale at Canterbury Park remaining on the schedule, the MSPT Season 9 Player of the Year Race is heating up. Aaron Johnson, who earlier this week locked up the HPT POY title, sits atop the leaderboard with 5,617 points, while Bohn is in second with 4,400. Both punched their tickets to Day 2 and are primed to add to their totals here in the final stretch.

Among those to try their luck on 1A but come up short were recent MSPT Meskwaki champ Taylor Howard, Paul “Big Daddy” Elfelt, poker pro Nick Pupillo, WSOP bracelet winner Ben Keeline, and former MSPT champs Ken Baime, Keith Heine, Dan Bekavac, Jason Ramos, and Kou Vang.

Day 1B will get underway at 3 p.m. local time on Friday, with the third and final flight, Day 1C, taking place at the same time on Saturday. The surviving players from all flights will return at 11 a.m. on Sunday to play down to a winner.