Day 1a of the MSPT Season 17 Colorado Poker State Championship at Bally’s Casino is officially in the books with 173 total entries tallied during the first flight.

With action needing to play down to 11% of the field, 15 levels were required, as there was 20:25 remaining on the clock once the hard stop was reached, with Cody Wentz and his stack of 756,000 leading the charge of the 20 advancing players by a wide margin.

Last year’s final tablist Erik Macias was able to catch some late-night steam to put 551,000 in his bag to end the night, while defending champ Antonio Vargas secured the final elimination of the night to join the half milly club, ending with 526,000.

Rounding out the top five stacks of the flight were Daniel Carr (412,000) and Thomas Schultz (371,000), while Corey Dodd (316,000), Taylor Fortini (241,000), Danny Gonzales (210,000), and Matt Livingston (164,000) all found a Day 2 berth.

Among those to try and fall on Day 1a included January’s Champ Vincent Moscati, Reza Sheykhi, Nader Wahdan, Zach Gutierrez, and fellow MSPT Champ Reza Yazdi, 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 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 11:00 a.m. on Sunday to play down to a winner.

MSPT Season 17 Colorado Poker State Championship Schedule

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