Golden Gates Casino

Colin Gordon Leads 20 Advancing Day 1a Survivors

The first of three starting flights in the Mid-States Poker Tour Golden Gates drew 119 entries to Black Hawk, Colorado on Thursday. After 14 levels of play, just 20 remained with Colin Gordon and his stack of 234,000 leading the way.

Gordon, who has $202,280 in lifetime earnings, is looking to top his career-high score of $41,280, which came back in 2007 when he finished fifth in the Fifth Annual Five Star World Poker Classic $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em Event. He's also looking to notch his first-ever MSPT cash.

Others who bagged on Day 1a were Kevin Kurtz (181,000), Ian Gregory (148,000), Michael Hassab (114,000), John Vitt (102,500), former champ Kane Lai (58,000), and Dan Howell (222,500).

With only three cashes for $5,716 in lifetime earnings, Howell's résumé isn't overly impressive. However, when you learn that those three cashes – one of which was a win for $2,580 and the other two third and fourth-place finishes -- all came within a five-day period in 2014 during the Colorado Poker Championship right here at Golden Gates Casino, well it's safe to say he's got home field advantage on his side.

Howell chipped up nicely toward the end of the night, which included sending poker pro Bryan Devonshire to the rail. It happened when Devonshire raised ace-queen and Howell just called with pocket kings. The flop came down queen-high, Devonshire bet, and Howell raised it up. Devonshire shoved, Howell called, and that was all she wrote for “Devo” after both the turn and river blanked.

Others who hit the rail were former MSPT Golden Gates Regional champ Bobby Sanoubane, circuit grinder Jesse Capps, two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner David Warga, MSPT pro Matt Alexander, and defending champ Phanora Prom.

Day 1b will take place at Noon local time on Friday, April 15, with Day 1c to follow at the same time on Saturday, April 16. Of course we'll be there every step of the way to capture all the action right here in the live blog, so be sure to check back then.

End-of-Day 1a Chip Counts

Colin Gordon - Denver, CO 234,000
Dan Howell - Denver, CO 222,500
Kevin Kurtz - Centennial, CO 181,000
Ramiro Perez - Denver, CO 150,000
Ian Gregory - Casper, WY 148,000
Philip Bujorian - Colorado Springs, CO 146,000
Khoa Nguyen - Littleton, CO 133,500
Josh Crain - Denver, CO 131,500
Khoi Le - Denver, CO 129,000
Dan Trush - Avon, CO 120,500
Michael Hassab - Avon, CO 114,000
William Prieto - Arvada, CO 108,500
John Vitt - Boulder, CO 102,500
Josh Pedersen - Aurora, CO 94,500
Anthony Martinez - Fort Lupton, CO 88,500
Greg Geller - Denver, CO 88,000
Brian Leitch - Evergreen, CO 72,000
Kane Lai - Highland Ranch, CO 58,000
Jason Tischer - Lakewood, CO 41,500
Milad Hajihabib - Denver, CO 34,000

Four More Hands

The final two tables will play four more hands each before bagging and tagging for the night. Stay tuned for a list of chip counts and a full recap of the Day 1a action.

Waldo a Late Night Casualty

Steve Waldo got his last 20,000 or so all in preflop and found himself in a bad spot against Brian Leitch.

Waldo:

Leicht:

Waldo was looking for a jack, but he failed to find one as the board ran out .

Brian Leitch - 60,000

Steve Waldo - Busted

Tischer Can't Flush Pedersen

Three players each put in 6,000 preflop and saw a flop of . At that point, Josh Pedersen managed to get his stack of 34,700 all in, Paul Tischer had him at risk, and the other player in the hand got out of the way.

Tischer:

Pedersen:

Pedersen had flopped bottom set, but he needed to dodge the spade draw of Tischer. The turn was a safe card, and so was the .

Josh Pedersen - 90,000

Paul Tischer - 23,000

Roy Runs Big Slick Into Pocket Rockets

Patrick Roy got his last 19,200 all in preflop and was at risk against Brian Leitch.

Roy:

Leitch:

Roy was in dire straits and in need of some major help, but he didn’t get it as the board ran out a dry .

Brian Leitch - 60,000

Patrick Roy - Busted

Devo & Alexander Among Recent Eliminations

We missed the elimination of Bryan Devonshire, but MSPT Pro Matt Alexander, who had been seated with him most of the evening, was kind enough to fill us in on some details.

According to him, Devonshire raised with and Dan Howell just called with . The flop came down , Devonshire bet, and Howell raised it up. Devonshire shoved, Howell called, and that was all she wrote for “Devo” after both the turn and river blanked.

Meanwhile, Robert Paris was also eliminated from the tournament, while Alexander fell a short time later after shoving with an ace and running smack dab into pocket kings.

Dan Howell - 210,000

Bryan Devonshire - Busted

Matt Alexander - Busted

Robert Paris - Busted

Gutfreund Eliminated

Updated Chip Counts from Table 13

Ramiro Perez - 125,000

Dan Trush - 110,000

Dan Howell - 95,000

Josh Crain - 80,000

Raymond Gallegos - 70,000

Bryan Devonshire - 55,000

Matt Alexander - 40,000

Don Berkeley - 30,000

Steve Waldo - 18,700

Rich Monroe - Busted

Updated Chip Counts from Table 3

John Vitt - 160,000

Colin Gordon - 115,000

Michael Hassab - 100,000

Milad Hajihabib - 95,000

Phil Bujorian - 85,000

William “Mexican” Prieto - 75,000

Khoa Nguyen - 70,000

Anthony Martinez - 50,000

David Gutfreund - 42,000

Dave Skilling - 36,000