On Monday, the Mid-States Poker Tour Venetian $1,100 Main Event, which features a juicy $2 million guarantee, attracted 499 entrants to Day 1a, the first of three starting flights. After 15 levels of play, just 61 remained with Brazil's Felipe Difini and his stack of 554,000 leading the way.

Difini, who finished 120^th in last year's World Series of Poker Main Event for a career-high $46,890, actually had some luck last summer here at The Venetian, which is when he finished third in the DeepStack Extravaganza III Event #54: $600 Limit Omaha 8/B for $15,485. Difini is primed to top that score as a big double knockout right at the end of the night firmly established him as the chip leader.

Others who bagged of big stacks were Joe Serock (329,500), Mukul Pahuja (282,500), Michael Wynn (260,000), and Mark Darner (255,500), who round out the top five. Others who made it through, albeit it with a bit less, were last year's sixth-place finisher Sergio Aido (175,000), MSPT Potawatomi champ Travis Lauson (166,500), recent WPT Montreal winner Seth Davies (108,500), and 2001 WSOP Main Event champ Carlos Mortensen (70,000).

Another interesting storyline is that of Angelina Rich and Alex Lynskey. The poker couple, who spend most of their time in Australia, bagged 43,000 and 99,000 respectively. Rich is no doubt familiar to MSPT fans as she is the defending champion of this very event. Last summer, Rich topped a field of 1,964 entrants to take home a $215,815 first-place prize and become the first woman in history to win a MSPT title. Rich is on the shorter side of things, but her title defense is very much alive.

Of course not everyone was fortunate enough to survive. Among those to fall on Day 1a were MSPT Pro Matt Alexander, 2007 WSOP Main Event champ Jerry Yang, reigning MSPT Player of the Year Mark Hodge, WPT world champ Asher Conniff, Venetian Ambassador Erica Lindgren, MSPT Meskwaki winner Keith Heine, and 2010 PCA victor Harrison Gimbel. Fortunately, those players can try again tomorrow if they so choose.

Day 1b is set to kickoff at Noon local time on Tuesday. Once again the plan is to play 15 levels, and late registration will be open until 6:30 p.m. Players have the opportunity to reenter once during each flight. Join us then as we bring you all the action and eliminations straight from the floor of The Venetian Poker Room.