Day 1C of the MSPT Golden Gates in Black Hawk, Colorado drew 178 entrants, which along with Day 1A’s 139 and 1B’s 155 brought the total field up to 472 entries.
After 14 levels of play, just 44 players bagged chips and none more so than Erasmus Morfe, who led the pack with 341,000. That is a tad behind both Day 1A chip leader Jim Morrison (402,000) and Day 1B leader Fernando Galvan (366,500).
Morphe, a doctor from Highlands Ranch, Colorado, is seeking his first MSPT cash, but a couple years ago he made some poker headlines when he went deep in the 2015 World Series of Poker Main Event. He ultimately finished 19th for $262,574, which was the last time he cashed a poker tournament. For more on Morfe, check out the feature PokerNews did on him during his run.
Others who survived the night were James Lee (211,500), former MSPT Golden Gates runner-up Jonathan McCray (205,500), Svetlana Martie (201,500), and Corey Zedo (84,500), who just last weekend took down the MSPT Golden Gates $360 Regional for more than $47K.
Not everyone was so lucky on Saturday. Among those to fall over the course of play were MSPT Season 6 Golden Gates Regional champ “Money” Mike Maruna, Iowa’s Jason Bender, 2016 MSPT Wisconsin State Poker Champ Andy Rubinberg, MSPT Season 5 Golden Gates champ Reza Yazdi, and Michigan pros Cy Church and Chris Moon.
On Sunday at 11 a.m., the combined 88 players (20 from Day 1A, 24 on 1B, and 44 on 1C) from all three flights will combine into a single field and play down to a winner. Click here for a look at the payouts.
Be sure to join us tomorrow as we bring you all the action straight from the tournament floor of the latest MSPT Golden Gates Main Event.