The Mid-States Poker Tour's second trip to Tropicana Evansville has seen one flight in the books, so there's one more to go: Day 1b is scheduled to kick off at 4 p.m. local time here on the Ohio River.
Day 1a saw 110 runners take their chances and just 19 advance to Sunday's Day 2, led by Craig Spalding, who ran it up to 283,000. Other notable survivors included MSPT Team Pro Nick Pupillo, two-time circuit ring winner Josh Turner, and last year's runner-up here, Alex Yen.
Some of the players who failed to advance, and players we'll likely see fire again on Day 1b: Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler, Jonathan Dimatteo, Jason Zarlenga, Matt Alexander, Mark Hodge, Adam Friedman, Adam Lamphere, and Steve Anderson. Hodge has another golden opportunity to gain Player of the Year ground on Blake Bohn, who is skipping this event.
Once again, players will get 20,000 in starting stacks and start with blinds of 50/100. Levels go up every 40 minutes, and each player gets one reentry. The reentries will be cut off at the beginning of Level 10, with breaks between every three levels. At the conclusion of 14 levels, players will bag and the Day 2 field will be set.
flop and got two calls. On the 
turn, he shoved all in for more than 20,000, and the player under the gun called off for about that amount. The third player folded.
river to take the pot.
flop. Zarlenga check-called 2,200, and he checked the 
. Dimatteo bet 4,500 this time, and Zarlenga called after a lengthy tank. The 
and Zarlenga rapped the table.
. Dawson said he was all in, and Dang snapped for about 17,000.
for a set.
. "That's a hell of a way to go out. Nice hand."
and Dawson made his exit.
. Alexander showed 
and said he thought he had the lead for sure when his opponent took some thinking time. The board ran out clean for the player with ace-king, and Alexander hit the rail.
in front of him on a board of 
. His unfortunate opponent was getting his stack counted down with 
on the felt face-up, and he couldn't match Fellers' 67,400. According to a player at the table, Fellers had opened in the cutoff and received action from the small blind, who led out on the flop. Fellers shoved all in and the small blind called, only to see the nightmare king appear on the river.
. He trailed Zarlenga's 
, and the two pair held on the 
river. Dimatteo didn't recover and busted shortly thereafter.