Day 1a of the MSPT Season 17 $1,110 Main Event at JACK Cleveland Casino is in the books, with the first flight tallying a healthy 165 entries, and the large field that entered came to play as action at the tables proved to be eventful from start to finish.

Just 19 players remained when chips went into bags with 29:31 remaining in Level 15 (3,000/6,000/6,000), with last February’s runner-up finisher Mike Valore soaring to the top of the chip counts, bagging 477,000 to edge out Milton Thomas (469,000) and Thomas Della Volpe (465,000) for the top spot.

Rounding out the top five stacks of the first flight were Bryan Corrigan (412,000) and Andrew Manchen (347,000), while Brad Rogoff (326,000), two-time Player of the Year Umut Ozturk (341,000), Daniel Swartz (321,000), 2019 runner-up finisher Anthony Carbonel (274,000), and three-time bracelet winner Sean Troha (153,000) all found a Day 2 berth.

Among those to try and fall on 1a were MSPT Champ Jon Lewis, Jameson Selvaggio, Patrick Coughlin, Penny Banhidy, and David Berman, just to name a few.

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

Day 1b will kick off at 12:15 p.m. local time on Friday, while the third and final flight, Day 1c, will take place at the same time on Saturday.

This is a best-stack forward event: If a player qualifies for Day 2 more than once, they may only play the higher chip stack; any lower stack(s) will be removed from play at the start of Day 2 and receive the lowest Day 2 payout.

Player of the Year points will only be awarded for the higher stack. Players will only receive credit for a single MSPT Main Event cash finish.

The surviving players from each flight will then return at 11:15 a.m. on Sunday to play down to a winner.

MSPT Season 17 JACK Cleveland Remaining Schedule

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