Day 1a of the Mid-States Poker Tour Running Aces Main Event – the second such event of Season 7 – drew 159 runners, which puts the tournament well on pace to surpass the advertised $200,000 guarantee. After 14 levels of play, just 26 players remained with Ron Thompson of Fridley, Minnesota and his stack of 282,000 leading the way.

Others who bagged and tagged were MSPT Meskwaki Season 6 champ Rich Alsup (204,500), Vladimir Revniaga (187,500), Rob Wazwaz (186,000), Jeremy Dresch (160,500), MSPT Season 7 Meskwaki champ Keith Heine (143,500), Rick “Moose” Syverud (89,000), and MSPT Running Aces Season 1 winner Jason Seitz (34,000).

Of course not everyone was so lucky. Among those to fall over the course of play were two-time MSPT champ Carl Carodenuto; World Series of Poker bracelet winner John Reading; former MSPT champs Travis Lauson, Joe Matheson, Kou Vang, and Jason “GrindMentality” Mirza; and all three MSPT Pros in Blake Bohn, Matt Kirby, and Matt Alexander, who finished runner-up in this event back in April.

All of those players and more have the opportunity to play Day 1b at 16:00 local time on Saturday. We expect to see many of those players try again, while some newbies such as CardsChat forum member Matt Vaughan and Iowa State Poker champ John Sun, who currently leads the MSPT Season 7 Player of the Year race, have both told us they’ll be making the trip up in the morning.

Until then, good night from Running Aces in Columbus, Minnesota!