An all in and a call were overheard on a board of and Paul Camby and Paul Kelly had all of the chips in the middle after going to battle several times during the last level of the night.
Paul Kelly:
Paul Camby:
Kelly's pocket aces had run into Camby's flopped trips and he would need to hit an ace to stay alive. The turn and river were clean for Camby, who covered Kelly and earned the pot and the knockout en route to reclaiming the chip lead shortly before play finishes for the night.
Day 1a of the 2019 MSPT Wisconsin State Poker Championship $1,100 Main Event is in the books after 15 levels of play. The day generated 120 entries in total and was full of action from start to finish, bringing a very real threat of the field reaching the 12 percent-figure of 14 players to result in an early bag and tag.
However, play slowed down for the last two levels of the night, seeing just two eliminations over that time to result in 16 players advancing. Paul Camby leads those 16 by a wide margin, finishing the day with 465,000 in chips.
Camby was an early chip leader, seen with over 100,000 before the second break of the day. He steadily accumulated all evening, reaching 400,000 at the beginning of the final level of play. But then he doubled up Geremi Wicinski and Paul Kelly to find himself down to around 160,000 midway through the level.
Then the tides turned again. Camby chipped back up over 200,000 and then won a massive pot at the end of the evening to knock out Kelly, flopping trips with eight-seven suited and getting stacks in against Kelly’s aces. Camby held and found himself back atop the leader board when chips went into bags.
Second in chips is 2013 MSPT Champion Josh Reichard (321,000), who finished the day well above the next three finishers in William Durkin (197,000), Bryan Mankie (195,000), and Wicinski (146,000)
Josh Reichard
A handful of familiar faces to the MSPT were not as fortunate on the first of three initial flights. Nick Pupillo, Aaron Johnson, Mike Shin, 2013 MSPT Player of the Year Pat Steele, and defending MSPT Potawatomi champion Daniel Bekavac all found themselves dry on one or two bullets apiece and some, if not all of them are likely to be seen again throughout the weekend.
The next opportunity to play is Day 1b on Friday at 3 p.m. local time. The structure will remain the same, with 15 more 40-minute levels on the docket.
Action is sure to be plentiful once again as the tournament picks up steam going into the weekend. PokerNews will be on hand every step of the way, so make sure to come back for updates.
and Paul Camby and Paul Kelly had all of the chips in the middle after going to battle several times during the last level of the night. 
