The first of three starting flights in the 2018 MSPT Denver Poker Open $1,100 Main Event drew 78 runners, but after 15 levels of play just 10 remained with Bobby Opila and his stack of 330,500 leading the way.
Opila is seeking his second MSPT cash after having finished 63rd in the MSPT Season 7 Golden Gates $360 Regional Event for a modest $857. He’s headed into Day 2 with enough chips to potentially make a deep run.
Others to bag included James Kitchen (199,500), Daniel Holland (176,000), Shawn Kjetland (168,000), Max Chrisp (164,500), Aaron Frei (140,000), Carlos Lopez (118,500), Brian Leitch (109,000), Richard Trenholme (108,000) and Rob Baker (46,500).
Of course, not everyone was fortunate enough to make it through the night. Among those to try and fall were MSPT Season 9 Golden Gates Regional champ Bobby Faecher, Nebraska’s Phil Mader, World Series of Poker bracelet winner Chris Tryba, and the ever-aggressive Greg Geller.
The Day 1B flight will get underway at Noon local time on Friday, with 1C to follow at the same time on Saturday. The surviving players from each flight will then return on Sunday to play down to a winner.
The entirety of the Main Event will be live reported here in the blog, while the final table action will also be live streamed worldwide on a 15-minute delay with hole cards. Bryan Mileski and Ben Valder will be providing commentary for the final table action.