Jeff Fielder has had a health stack most of the day and is building little by little. He now sits at 115,000 after a hand against Josh Reichard.
Fielder made it 4,500 preflop and Riechard defended his big blind. The board came and Reichard checked to Fielder. Fielder bet 5,500 and Reichard called. The turn was the and Reichard checked again. Fielder bet 5,500 again, only this time Reichard folded.
Andrew Rubinberg was heads up in a hand with Mark Hodge, and in a few seconds he would eliminate Hodge in the second to last level of the night.
The board read and Rubinberg bet 6,500. Hodge reraised to 16,000 and sent Rubinberg to the tank. After a few short moments, Rubinberg reraised all in and Hodge snap-called.
Hodge was on a draw with bottom pair and Rubinberg had an overpair . The turn was the , making Hodge's situation a little more dire and when the paired the board on the river, that was the end of Hodge's day.
The champion of the previous MSPT Ho-Chunk Gaming Wisconsin Dells in February, Ben Wiora is still alive with about 15 big blinds with two levels remaining in play tonight.
Duma Lowery, who was left with barely 7 big blinds earlier in the night has worked his stack back up to 60,000 and is sitting in a good spot with two levels remaining.
The players are on a ten-minute break. There are 44 players left and whichever players remain at the end of two more levels will earn their seat in Day 2 Sunday at 11 a.m. local time.
Thao Thiem, also known as "Scratch" was seen heading to the rail. He had capped at about 70,000 for the day, but was unable to make it through in Day 1a.
Lee Rzentkowski has been riding a big stack all day. Over the last level or two, he has worked his stack to 350,000. On a recent hand, he called a river bet of 17,500 and won the hand with a king-high straight, adding another 30,000 to his already chip-leading stack.