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.