Day 1a of the MSPT Season 16 Winter Poker Classic $1,110 Main Event is officially in the books with 219 total entries tallied for the first starting flight.

After a hard stop was reached in Level 14 with 10:00 remaining, it was Mike Nelson who found himself atop of the chip counts, putting a whopping 730,000 on his slip to end the night.

Coming in behind Nelson was Justin Gish, who ended the night with 648,000, while MSPT Hall of Famer Josh Reichard secured the final elimination of the night, as he was the only other player to eclipse the 500k, ending with 541,000.

Last year’s Running Aces Regional champion Arlo Strozewski was a late arrival, but that didn’t stop him from rounding up a 443,000 stack, while fellow Minnesotan Ashish Gandhi rounded out the top five stacks with 425,000.

Others to survive the night include Daniel Kennedy (423,000), Tony Moses (293,000), MSPT Hall of Famer Kou Vang (284,000), Loki Abboud (255,000), and WSOP bracelet winner Chad Holloway (144,000).

Of course, not everyone was fortunate enough to survive the night. Among those to fire and fall in Thursday’s flight were two-time MSPT champ David Gonia, Kristin Dahl, Matt Fox, Heidi Roggenkamp, WSOP bracelet winner John Reading, and fellow two-time MSPT champ Jeremy Dresch, to name a few.

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

Day 1b will kick off at 2:00 p.m. local time on Friday, December 5^th, while the third and final flight, Day 1c, will take place at noon on Saturday, December 6^th.

The surviving players from each flight will then return at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, December 7^th, to play down to a winner.

MSPT Winter Poker Classic Weekend Schedule

Make sure to tune back in for live updates throughout the entire tournament!