Day 1A of the MSPT Venetian $1,100 Main Event drew 109 entries, but after 13 levels of play just 13 remained with Eric Blair and his stack of 325,000 leading the way.

Blair may be seeking his first MSPT cash but don’t let that fool you. He has amassed nearly $1.9 million in live tournament earnings including a career-best $228,307 for finishing third in the 2018 WSOP Event #20: $5,000 NLH this past summer. Three weeks after that, he placed fifth in Event #58: $5,000 NLH Six-Handed for $120,669. He also finished third in a $1,500 NLH event in 2013 for $127,300.

Others to bag big stacks were Eyal Al-Revah (278,500), John Morgan (240,500), Nikolai Sears (224,000), and Michael Iacovone (190,000), who round out the top five.

They were joined by the likes of 1997 WSOP runner-up John Strzemp (183,500), two-time bracelet winner Eric Baldwin (139,500), and Wendy Freedman (98,000).

Unfortunately, not everyone was so lucky. Among those to hit the rail on Day 1A were two-time MSPT champ Peixin Liu, EPT champ Kevin MacPhee, 2014 WSOP APAC champ Scott Davies, and Venetian regulars Tim Reilly, Matt Hunt, and Matt Affleck. Likewise, former MSPT champs Jason Seitz, Nick JivkovKfir Nahum, and Andy Rubinberg all fell.

Those players will have a chance to try again if they see fit as Day 1B is set to kickoff at Noon local time on Saturday. Late registration for that flight will remain open until 7:30 p.m. Once again, we’ll be there every step of the way to capture the action here in the blog, so be sure to join us then.