Day 1a of the MSPT Season 16 Indiana Poker State Championship at the Ameristar Casino in East Chicago is officially in the books with 96 total entries tallied during the first flight.

With action needing to play down to 11% of the field, 14 levels were required, as there was 10:56 remaining on the clock once the hard stop was reached with Frederick Ginther and his stack of 796,000 leading the charge of the 11 advancing players by a wide margin.

Sitting second in chips was Maxwell Sheridan, who caught some late-night steam to put 488,000 in his bag to end the night, while Rudy Vegh finished behind him with 351,000.

MSPT Hall of Famer Josh Reichard was able to find himself a top-five sack as well, bagging 346,000, while Justin Gutierrez (222,000), rounded out the top stacks of the first flight.

Others who found a Day 2 berth after the first starting flight included Christopher Weber (206,000), Ben Stuart (172,000), Jeff Halcomb (111,000), and Hal Kilgore (71,000).

Among those to try and fall on Day 1a included Dan Meyers, Jamin Stokes, Jospeh Hartstein, Jennifer Mandel, and Brad Sailor, among others.

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 on 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 11:00 a.m. on Sunday to play down to a winner.

MSPT Season 16 Ameristar East Chicago Remaining Schedule

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