Day 1a of the MSPT Season 15 Michigan Poker State Championship at FireKeepers Casino in Battle Creek, Michigan is in the books with the first flight tallying 600 total entries, putting it just behind with the record-setting 672 total Day 1a entries set last year.

Just over 15 full levels were needed to hit the hard stop of 66 players as 28:00 minutes remained in Level 16 when chips hit the slips with none other than four-time MSPT champion Dan Bekavac seizing the top once again as clipped the milly mark taking a whopping 1,019,000 into Day 2.

Hot on Bekavac’s tail was Bob Buyce who put an impressive 933,000 in his bag to end the night, while MSPT champ Michael Berk (774,000), Rudy Cervantes (618,000), and Steven Hilton (555,000) rounded out the top five stacks.

Other players to survive the first flight were Dave Gutfreund (536,000), MSPT champ Mike O’Neill (445,000), WSOP bracelet winner Robert Mitchell (349,000), MSPT champ Jon Lewis (345,000), and 2022 FireKeepers champ Matt Davis (286,000) just to name a few.

Among those to try and fall on 1a include MSPT Hall of Famer’s Pat Steele, Rich Alsup, Rodger Johnson & Aaron Johnson, along WSOP bracelet winner’s Keven Stammen and Dash Dudley.

Those players, as well as any newcomers, have two more starting flights to jump back into action.

Day 1b will kick off at Noon local time Friday, while the third and final flight, Day 1c, will take place at the same time on Saturday.

The surviving players from each flight will then return at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday to play down to a winner.

Join us tomorrow as we continue to bring you all the action and eliminations straight from the tournament floor of FireKeepers Casino!