On Friday, Day 1b of the Mid-States Poker Tour Golden Gates Main Event attracted 180 entries, which means along with Day 1a's 119, the total field currently stands at 299 with Day 1c still to go. The $200,000 guaranteed prize pool has already been surpassed; so now the only question is how big will it grow?

After 14 levels of play, just 33 players advanced from Day 1b with Shane Faulk and his stack of 240,500 leading the way, which is slightly ahead of Day 1a chip leader Colin Gordon's 234,000.

Faulk, who hails from Parker, Colorado, has just $1,044 in lifetime earnings, meaning if he can use his big stack to navigate his way into the money, he'll be setting all sorts of personal records.

Others who bagged and tagged on Day 1b were Boulder's Ian Schwartz (225,000); Mike Ross (216,600), who reentered in Level 13 and promptly ran his starting stack of 20,000 up, up, and up; MSPT Pro Matt Alexander (123,500); PokerNews reporter Mo Nuwwarah (107,500); and defending champ Phanora Prom (34,500).

For a full list of Day 1b chip counts, click here.

Of course not everyone was so fortunate. Among those to fall on Day 1b were former MSPT Golden Gates Regional champ Bobby Sanoubane; Svetlana Martie, who has cashed in six out of seven MSPT events at the property; Nebraska farmer Phil Mader; last year's fifth-place finisher Ben Keeline; reigning MSPT Player of the Year Mark Hodge; 2013 MSPT Ho-Chunk Gaming Wisconsin Dells champ Josh Reichard.

Reichard fell in Level 11 (600/1,200/200) after he moved all in for 12,000 over the top of Jason Vanstrom's open. Vanstrom made the call with pocket jacks, which held against the ace-nine suited of Reichard. Vanstrom went on to bag 89,000.

All of the above-listed players will have the opportunity to try again on Saturday's Day 1c if they so choose. Furthermore, registration and reentries are open until the very end of Day 1c, so we’ll have to wait to then in order to learn official prize pool and payout information. Cards will be back in the air at Noon local time tomorrow, so be sure to check back then.