Day 1b of the Mid-States Poker Tour FireKeepers Casino proved to be a record-breaking one as 310 entrants took to the felt, which made it the largest starting flight in MSPT history outside the summer's special Venetian stop.

Along with Day 1a's 165 runners, the total field stands at 475, and with Day 1c still to go, the tournament should not only surpass last year's record of 614 entries but very well may flirt with a $700,000 prize pool!

The second of three starting flights was littered with pros and amateurs alike, but after 14 levels of play, just 66 remained with Jonathan Dimatteo and his stack of 249,500 leading the way. That is a good chunk more than Isaac Kratchman, who led the 33 Day 1a survivors with 191,000.

Others who bagged were Adam Lamphere (150,000), Jason Bender (144,500), Nick Depalma (136,000), former FireKeepers champs Jason Zarlenga (85,000) an Ryan Dykhouse (47,000), Kou Vang (70,500), MSPT Pro Matt Kirby (55,000), reigning MSPT Player of the Year Mark Hodge (42,000), Joe Ebanks (28,000), and Joe Cada, who bagged the second-biggest stack with 230,000.

Cada, who hails from Macomb, Michigan and was playing in his first-ever MSPT event, topped a field of 6,494 players – which included defeating Darvin Moon in heads-up play -- to win the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event. At the time, Cada was just 21 years old and supplanted Peter Eastgate as the youngest WSOP Main Event champ ever Cada, an online player before his big win, took home $8,546,435 for the win while cementing his name in the history books.

What's more, Cada, who tops Michigan's all-time money list with $10,403,598 in lifetime earnings, became the only player in the modern era (2003-present day) to follow up his Main Event win by capturing a second bracelet. It happened in 2014 when he topped a field of 264 to win the WSOP Event #32: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Six-Handed for $670,041, the second-largest cash of his career.

Cada received a boost just before registration closes. That is when a player in middle position opened for 2,200 and Ryan Terpstra flatted from the button. Cada came along from the small blind and three players took a flop of ​. Cada led out for 3,500, the middle-position player called, and Terpstra came along to see the ​ turn.

Cada bet 5,100, the middle-position player folded, and Terpstra moved all in for right around 17,000. Cada made the call and the cards were turned up.

Terpstra:

Cada:

Cada was ahead with two pair, but Terpstra was drawing to both straight and flush draws. The dealer burned one last time and put out the ​. Cada filled up and that was the end of the line for Terpstra.

Of course not everyone was as fortunate as Cada. Among those to fall on Day 1b were Season 4 Player of the Year Patrick Steele, Season 5 Player of the Year Mike Deis, WSOP bracelet winners Adam Friedman and Nick Jivkov, and MSPT Potawatomi champ Travis Lauson.

All of those players will have a final opportunity to play at Noon local time on Saturday, which is when Day 1c will kick off. Once again we'll be bringing you all the action, eliminations, and chip counts right here in the MSPT Blog, so be sure to join us then.