Day 1C of the MSPT FireKeepers $1,000,000 Guaranteed Main Event proved to be a third straight record setting flight, as the 676 entrants from today’s flight combined with the 334 from Day 1A and 582 from Day 1B to give us a total field of 1,692 entrants, smashing the record for the biggest MSPT Main Event outside of The Venetian! The former record was held by this event last year, when 1,287 players entered.
The 676 entries were whittled down to just 91 by the end of the night, and Jeff Mackey held the chip lead when all was said and done, bagging 593,000, ahead of Day 1B chip leader Irbrahim Shoubah’s 526,000 stack and Day 1A chip leader George Janssen’s 462,500 stack. Two years ago, Mackey bagged the overall chip lead in the Season 8 MSPT Michigan State Poker Championship, parlaying that big stack into a 20th place finish. The rest of the top five include David Austin (452,500), Brek Schutten (412,000), Rodney Greene (359,000), and CJ Hubble (335,000).
Others to make it through to the final day include Kevin Berthelsen (308,500), Alan Cutler (215,000), Royce Matheson (199,500), Season 8 MSPT Potawatomi Regional champ Craig Trost (174,000), Jeff Fielder (162,500), Jordan Miller (149,500), Season 9 MSPT Michigan State Poker champ Matthew Stammen (141,500), Season 9 MSPT Iowa State Poker champ Brian Soja (127,000), Season 9 MSPT POY Aaron Johnson (114,000), Season 7 MSPT FireKeepers champ Aaron Massey (106,000), Jeff Minnerly (109,500), Ralph Massey (98,000), MSPT Poker Bowl III champ Brian Wilson (77,000), and Season 8 MSPT Indiana State Poker champ Satish Thakur (67,000).
Not everyone could make it through, however, and some of those unfortunate enough to fall short of bagging and tagging include former MSPT FireKeepers champs Brett Blackwood, Mike Shanahan, Tom Midena, Michael Ferrarotti, and Ryan Dykhouse, 2009 WSOP Main Event champ Joe Cada, three-time MSPT champ Matt Kirby, two-time MSPT champs Andy Rubinberg, Jeremy Dresch and Dan Bekavac, Season 8 MSPT POY Chris Meyers, Season 6 POY Mark Hodge, poker pro Keven Stammen, and former MSPT champs Mike Shin, TJ Ryan, Tim Burden, Hao “John” Sun, Rodger Johnson, and Steve Federspiel.
Tomorrow, the remaining 202 players (39 from Day 1A, 72 from Day 1B, 91 from Day 1C) will combine at 11 AM local time to play down to a winner. You can follow all the action right here from the blog, and the final table of ten will be broadcast on a fifteen-minute delay here at MSPTpoker.com as well as on Twitch.tv/MSPTpoker. We’ll see you tomorrow with all the highlights and action from the biggest MSPT Main Event in Michigan history!