A field littered with top-tier MSPT players took their seats within the Meskwaki Veteran’s Convention Center at the Meskwaki Bingo Casino Hotel in Tama, Iowa for the 2019 MSPT Iowa State Poker Championship and Jovan Sudar emerged as the top chip stack for Day 1A.

Sudar put away 346,500 chips to edge out Jason Seitz who bagged 317,000 for second place. John Sun was third with 270,000 chips followed by Jon Hanner with 266,000 and Steve Wazwaz rounded out the top five with 259,500. Keith Heine wound up the day with 124,000 chips, Dan Sun also moved on with 115,000 and Mike Shin continued his incredible 2019 season putting away 60,000 chips to advance to Day 2.

Among the notables who did not advance out of Day 1A include MSPT Hall of Famers Aaron Johnson, Kou Vang and Rich Alsup along former MSPT Iowa champions Ken Komberec, Taylor Howard, Brian Soja and Steve Federspiel. Also not making the cut today were past MSPT Champions TJ Ryan and Rob Wazwaz along with WSOP bracelet winners Chad Holloway and John Reading plus 2016 MSPT Player of the Year Mark Hodge, two-time WSOP Circuit Event winner Ryan Tepen and Joe Barnard

For the flight,164 entries were recorded taking the tournament well over halfway to its $300,000 guarantee with 21 players having advanced to Day 2. Day 1B will kick off on Saturday at 3 PM and will be the final opportunity for our players to reach Day 2 and play for the championship. Sunday’s play will resume at 11 AM here at Meskwaki Bingo Casino Hotel.

Congratulations to everyone who advanced to Day 2 and we’ll see you back here tomorrow afternoon on the Mid-States Poker Tour from Tama, Iowa!