Yesterday, the 195 entrants that took to the felt for the MSPT Michigan State Poker Championship set a Day 1a record here at FireKeepers for largest opening flight ever. Today, the same can be said of Day 1b, which officially attracted 338 entries (up from the 310 last spring). That brings the current field up to 533 entries with Day 1c still to go, meaning there’s a good chance the spring event, which holds the record for largest MSPT event in the Midwest with 820 entries, will be surpassed as just 288 entries are needed to set a new MSPT record.

After 14 levels of play on Day 1b, 76 players remained with Lansing’s Parris Collins and his stack of 318,000 leading the way, which is ahead of the 287,000 of Day 1a chip leader Casey Carroll. Others who bagged big on Day 1b were Brekstyn Schuteen (287,500), Jianming Zeng (236,500), and Mark Johnson Jr. (202,500).

However, one of the biggest stories of the day was the return of Aaron Massey, who won the aforementioned spring tournament for $174,658. Massey, who was accompanied by his brother Ralph, picked up right where he left off as he started building a stack immediately after late registering the tournament. Aaron and Ralph bagged 196,500 and 43,000 respectively.

Others who advanced from Day 1b were MSPT Meskwaki champ Keith Heine (145,000), Griff Woodman (120,000), Nick Pupillo (101,500), Xingjun Chen (70,500), Philip Wojtuniecki (43,500), and Bruce Swart (33,500).

Of course not everyone could make it through the day. Among those to hit the rail were Wisconsin State Poker Champion Andy Rubinberg; Ray Ross, who before today had never played a tournament costing more than $30 (other than the $65 satellite he won); Minnesota poker pro Aaron Johnson; recent WPTDeepStacks Iowa champ Jeff Fielder, and the man who finished runner-up to him, Mike Lang; and two-time MSPT champ Jason Zarlenga.

All of those players will have the opportunity to try again in Saturday’s final flight. We’ll be back at Noon tomorrow for Day 1c action, so be sure to join us then for all the latest and greatest straight from the floor of the MSPT Michigan State Poker Championship!