Rosa Bags Big Chip Lead on Day 1a of 2020 MSPT Golden Gates $360 Regional Event
Day 1a of the 2020 Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) Golden Gates $360 Regional Event saw a whopping 161 entries come up to the Golden Gates Casino and Poker Parlour on Wednesday. Those who entered came to play and the action at the tables proved to be eventful from start to finish.
Fifteen full levels were played to their completion after 20 players remained when three hands were drawn to end the night across the two tables left in play, just one elimination from hitting a hard stop. Over those three hands, three more players were eliminated and 17 players punched their ticket to Sunday’s Day 2.
Luis Rosa (641,000) leads the pack by a wide margin after finishing the night with an exclamation mark, earning one of the three aforementioned knockouts on the penultimate hand of the evening. The top five is rounded out by four other players who finished the day north of 300,000: John Taitt (399,000), Greg Geller (390,000), Lyman Woodworth, and Behrouz Keshtavar (328,000).
The action hit a new gear on final level of the evening, which saw the remaining players in the field ultimately drop from 26 down to 17. Chips flew across the room and stacks fluctuated accordingtly. Geller’s evening peaked at around 485,000, while Taitt, Woodworth, and Keshtavar all were beneficiaries of the wild action that ensued during the last half hour of play. Others to advance included Nate Zoller (251,000), Alexander Gross (242,000), James Callanan (99,000), and Jeff Granowsky (87,000).
Many players were not as fortunate. Danny Gonzales, Pat Pineda, Greg Collins, and Sammy Aweida were just a few who took their shot at a bag on Day 1a only to come up short. All who have yet to advance will have three more starting flights for further attempts.
PokerNews will be on hand for the rest of the weekend to bring you all of the action, so be sure to come back for Thursday’s Day 1b at noon local time.
. The turn 
and river 
completed the runout with his kings up remaining best and he scored the double knockout, vaulting his stack up to 384,000 in the process.
, giving Collins a set of jacks on the turn to score him the improbable double.
and Pineda checked. Shenefelt was next to act and put out a bet of 6,500, which the cutoff called before Pineda folded.
and Shenefelt postured for a couple of seconds before announcing he was all in. The cutoff immediately called.
and quickly received a call from his opponent in early position. The player who called was the one at risk and found himself in need of help once the hands were tabled.
completed the runout with his pair of aces remaining second best to spell his elimination at the expense of Arnold.
completed the runout in a safe fashion, scoring him the double knockout and the massive pot along the way.
for a rivered two pair that was no good and quickly scooped up and mucked by the dealer. Meanwhile, Taylor now finds himself with over two stacks early in Level 3 and is one of the largest stacks in the room.
with five players in the pot. Action had checked to Johnny Ambrosio in middle position and he threw out a bet of 1,000. The players on the button and in the blinds all folded and the final player left in the hand called from under the gun. 
. Both players checked and the river came 
. The under-the-gun player checked once more and Ambrosio fired out a bet of 1,000, which was called.