Day 1A of the MSPT Potawatomi $1,100 Main Event in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin easily surpassed the advertised $200,000 guarantee as 233 entrants took to the felt in the first of two starting flights. After 14 levels of play, just 43 remained with World Series of Poker bracelet winner John Reading and his stack of 298,000 leading the way.

Reading, who hails from Minnesota, topped a field 1,436 in the 2015 WSOP Event #6: $1,000 Hyper Hold’em to win $252,068 and a gold bracelet. As for the MSPT, he has nine cashes for $97,685, which includes three final table appearances. His best finish to date was third in the MSPT Season 5 Canterbury Park for $37,509.

Others who bagged big stacks were Dan Crawford (219,00), MSPT Season 7 Player of the Year Rich Alsup (208,500), two-time champ Jeremy Dresch (191,000), Andrija Solovjev (188,500), and Cero Zuccarello (182,000).

Joining them, albeit with smaller stacks, were Gary Herstein (145,000), Randy Perkins (115,000), Aaron Johnson (100,000), 2016 MSPT Iowa State Poker Champ John Sun (71,000), and Cory Cove (34,500).

Of course, not everyone was so lucky. Among those to try and fall on Day 1A were former MSPT champs Ken Baime, Jason Mirza, Dan Goepel, Keith Heine, Travis Lauson, Vinh Tran, and Dan “DQ” Hendrickson. They were joined on the rail by MSPT Season 6 Player of the Year Mark Hodge, 2016 Aussie Millions champ and eight-time WSOP Circuit ring winner Ari Engel, and everyone’s favorite curmudgeon Howard Hankins.

Day 1B, which will kick off at 4 p.m. local time on Saturday, will the last opportunity for players to get into action. Late registration and a single re-entry option will remain open until the start of Level 10, which is approximately 10:30 p.m.

Join us tomorrow as we bring you all the action straight from the MSPT Potawatomi tournament floor.