It has been a slow start so far for Wisconsin native, PokerNews Senior Editor and WSOP bracelet winner Chad Holloway.
He fell below the 20,000-chip mark mid-way through the day's second level but just picked up some steam.
After a player in middle position bumped it to 400 and got one caller, Holloway made it 1,500 to go. The original raiser let it go, but the caller flatted.
After he checked the flop, Holloway continued for 1,700 and forced a fold, inching back up close to where he started.
Madison, Wisconsin's Gerald Heckathorn found an early double and now sits at the top the chip counts with close to 40,000.
He picked up pocket tens and picked off one opponent who shoved pocket sixes on the turn of a queen-high board.
The tens held and Heckathorn, who already has two deep runs on the MSPT this year, making 12th in Tama, Iowa and fifth at Baraboo, Wisconsin, is off to the races again.
Rich and Donnie break down the epic slowroll at the Irish Poker Open, look ahead to the WPT500 at ARIA, discuss Christian Lusardi's sentencing, and the Global Poker Masters announcement.
The 2015 Mid-States Poker Tour continues today with a return to Milwaukee's opulent Potawatomi Casino — the very same venue where the tour set a Wisconsin state record for field size, attracting 487 entries this past September.
Back then it was Michigan's Jason Zarlenga who booked a $120,164 win in the second-largest event in MSPT history.
This time around even bigger numbers are expected as the MSPT has plans to obliterate its $200,000 guarantee.
The first of two starting flights is set to go off at 4 p.m. local time today, with a second at 4 p.m. Saturday and plans to play down a champion Sunday, April 12.
Today, the $1,100 buy-in for the Main Event will get players a 20,000-chip starting stack which they can use to weave their way through 14 40-minute levels on Day 1a.
Players who advance from Day 1a are not eligible to play in Day 1b. The remaining players from each flight will combine on Sunday and play down to a winner. The Main Event final table, featuring 60-minute levels, will be broadcast live (15-minute delay) with hole cards on msptpoker.com and PokerNews.
The PokerNews Live Reporting team will be on hand to capture all the action throughout and players can use the MyStack app to update chip counts straight into the live blog.
To download the My Stack app free on either Apple or Android, click here.