Main Event
Day 1a Started
2015 Mid-States Poker Tour Potawatomi Casino
Main Event
Day: 1a
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2015 Mid-States Poker Tour Potawatomi Casino
Buy-in
$1,000
Prize Pool
$635,000
Entries
635
Level
32
Blinds
80,000 / 160,000
Ante
20,000
The 2015 MSPT Potawatomi Casino Main Event Starts Now!
![[user127999]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
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.
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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.
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Level: 1
Blinds: 50/100
Ante: 0
The Cards Are In The Air
Level 1
: 50/100, 0 ante
The cards are in the air here at the Potawatomi Casino with the board currently reading 150 entries and a line up at the registration desk.
A Heck of a Call
Level 1
: 50/100, 0 ante
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.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
39,000 | 39,000 |
Level: 2
Blinds: 75/150
Ante: 0
Bureta's Sets
Level 2
: 75/150, 0 ante
Wisconsin's own Doug Bureta is off to a quick start and into the early chip lead.
He managed to drag a sizable pot making a set of threes, then used a set of jacks to crack one opponent's pocket aces.
Sitting on a little under 50,000 now he's the man everybody is chasing just into the start of the day's second level.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
48,000 | 48,000 |
The Set Machine
Level 2
: 75/150, 0 ante
Belvidere, Illinois resident Kathy Holz-Zamuto says some early luck has shot her to a spot near the top of the chip counts early on.
The rest of her table says she's been a pair magnet and a set machine, collecting pot after pot along the way to a stack close to 50,000 already.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
47,000 | 47,000 |
The Boss
Level 2
: 75/150, 0 ante
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.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
18,500 | 2,725 |