Day 1a of the 2016 Mid-States Poker Tour Indiana State Poker Championship at Tropicana Evansville drew 142 entrants, up considerably from last year's 110 runners. That puts us well on track to surpass the $250,000 guarantee as Day 1b is expected to draw an even bigger crown.

After 14 levels of play, just 27 players bagged chips with Joseph Bommarito and his stack of 260,000 leading the way. Bommarito got a great deal of his chips in the penultimate level of the night when he jammed with sixes and threes and Kyle Brantley called off with top pair of kings. The two pair held on the river and Bommarito never looked back.

Others who punched their ticket to Day 2 were Donnie Phan (233,000), Zach Peay (214,000), MSPT Season 4 Player of the Year Patrick Steele, and Ricky Stinson (81,500), who is looking to cash in his third consecutive MSPT Tropicana Evansville Main Event.

Of course not everyone was so fortunate. Among those to take a shot and miss on Day 1a were World Series of Poker bracelet winners Nick Jivkov and Adam Friedman; MSPT Season 6 Player of the Year Mark Hodge; Hollywood Poker Open St. Louis champ Cory Bogert; Wisconsin State Poker Champ Andy Rubinberg; and Charles Dawson, who won the inaugural MSPT Tropicana Evansville two years ago.

All of those players will have the opportunity to try again on Day 1b if they so choose. That flight will begin at 4 p.m. local time and we already know some new faces will be in the field including Michigan's Jason Smith and Brent Burrows, who both drove in late today, as well as Iowa State Poker Champ and current MSPT Season 7 POY leader John Sun.

Join us then as we bring you all the action straight from the floor of the 2016 MSPT Indiana State Poker Championship from Tropicana Evansville!