Day 1b of the MSPT Golden Gates drew 183 entries to Black Hawk, Colorado, which along with Day 1’s 98 brought the total field up to 281 entrants. As such, the advertised $200,000 guarantee has been surpassed, and with $279,000 already in the prize pool and a whole other flight still to go, there’s no telling how big it could grow.

After 13 levels of play, 39 players had advanced to Day 2 with Jackson McAllister and his stack of 257,000 leading the way. That is a bit behind Day 1a chip leaders Scott Stewart and Bobby Garcia, who bagged 351,400 and 296,300 respectively.

Others to find a bag on Day 1b were MSPT Season 6 Golden Gates champ Kane Lai (243,200), 2016 MSPT Michigan State Poker Championship runner-up Cy Church (116,700), poker pro Josh Turner (101,500), WSOP Colossus II champ Ben Keeline (89,800), former MSPT Running Aces champ Mark Sandness (79,400), WSOP Milly Maker champ Adrian Buckley (51,000), and MSPT Pro Matt Alexander (43,500).

Day 1b wasn’t so kind to the likes of TJ Thupten, who currently sits third on the MSPT POY leaderboard; April’s MSPT Golden Gates runner-up Jason Vanstrom; former MSPT champs Phanora Prom and Rodger Johnson; and Al Giardina, who at the time worked at Canterbury Park when he gave a new tour a chance (Hint: it was us) way back in 2009.

At Noon local time on Saturday, the third and final starting fight of the tournament will kick off. We expect it to be the biggest flight yet, so be sure to join us then as we bring you all the action and eliminations straight from the floor of Golden Gates Casino in Black Hawk, Colorado.