Minnesota native Todd Fisher has built a contending stack here into Level 10.
He dragged a 60,000-chip pot when one player shoved big slick into his pocket aces and has spent the hour since as a bit of a card rack.
In the meantime, Tam Le picked up two small pots to become the second player past the 100,000-chip mark. He's the only one there now, however, and has the chip lead as a result.
Andy Redleaf called a Binh Nguyen 35,000-chip shove on a flop with the .
Nguyen had the for trips, but needed to fade more than just clubs when the turn was revealed.
He managed to do it on the river and while he finds a spot among the leaders now, Redleaf has fallen all the way from the top to the bottom for the second time tonight.
MSPT Player of the Year points leader Mark Hodge has busted his second bullet tonight, but will likely return tomorrow for a shot at Day 1b.
In the meantime, the MSPT staff has done a little work with the calculator to figure out what would need to happen for someone to surpass him in the POY race.
MSPT Pros Blake Bohn and Nicholas Pupillo have the best shot. If Hodge fails to cash, and the event draws between 400 and 500 players as expected, they would need to finish ninth or better to win it.
Under the same parameters, Peixin Liu and Bill Rogers would need to finish eighth or better and Rich Alsup would have to grab seventh or above.
Daniel Goepel and Angelina Rich need to find fourth or better, although neither is expected to play and Gerald Heckathorn, Thomas Peebles and Daniel Buckley would need a win to capture the POY crown.
Carl Carodenuto's amazing zero to hero story continues here as he suddenly finds himself just underneath chip leader Yao Yin on the leader board and seated two to his right as well.
Just before his last table broke, Carodenuto called a Matt Alexander raise with a weak ace, flopped a pair of aces and called off when a third-player in the hand shoved nothing but a gutshot.
Aces held and Carodenuto took 160,000 over to his new seat.
Yao Yin is in the driver's seat and his foot his firmly on the gas.
Moments ago, he pushed over a bet, heads up on a flop. Yao's opponent called with and was miles ahead of Yin's . The turn changed little, but the river changed it all.
Yin scooped the pot with two pair, collected another tournament life, crested the 300,000-chip mark and is now officially running away with Day 1a here in Minnesota.