For the seventh time, the Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) has partnered with Silverado-Franklin Casino for the 2023 MSPT South Dakota State Poker Championship, a tournament that dates back to 2011 and the first of two starting flights closed with 218 total entries.

Almost a full 15 levels were played to completion as a hard stop was reached with 13:30 remaining as just 26 players bagged and tagged with Robert Thompson leading the pack with 559,000.

Hot on Thompson's tail was Weston Wells (512,000) who was the only other player to bag north of 500k while John Cap (483,000), Darrel Hochhalter (433,000), and Mark Fink (428,000) round out the top five stacks.

Others to punch their tickets into Day 2 include Chris Duncan (270,000), MSPT champ Rodger Johnson (227,000), Cory Peck (147,000), Cynthia Foster (132,000), and DJ Buckley (85,000).

Of course, not everyone was fortunate enough to make it through the night. Among those to fire and fall in Friday’s flight were MSPT Hall of Famers Aaron Johnson & Josh Reichard, defending champ Chris Burke and 2019 Deadwood champ Sergio Mireles.

Day 1b will get underway at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday. Late registration and re-entries will remain open through Level 12 (approximately 11:40 p.m.).

The MSPT.com reporting crew will be on hand to capture all the action, so be sure to join us then.