Kinzer Leads As Fifteen Bag on Day 1a of MSPT Black Hawk
The first day of the Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) Black Hawk $1,110 Main Event drew 133 entries to kick things off, surpassing 75% of the tournament's $200,000 guaranteed prize pool with two remaining flights to go. Plenty of big names made their way up to Bally's Black Hawk, creating what was likely the most star-studded field the room has seen since prior to the pandemic, with chips flying and players dropping until just 15 remained to reach a hard stop 21 minutes prior to the planned end of the day.
When that mark was reached, Michael Kinzer (488,000) had ascended to the top of the leader board, ultimately finishing with a stack nearly 50% bigger than the next-closest competitor. Kinzer's day dealt him largely no setbacks, knocking out a player early with ace-king and then doing it again to Scott Stewart against the latter's jacks. He then knocked out Derek McMaster in the penultimate level of the evening to contend for the chip lead, with others falling out of contention as he continued to add to his stack until play concluded for the night.
Jason Welch finished the day second in chips with 326,000, also experiencing a surge at the end of the night to bag a second-place stack. Thom Schultz (317,000) was third for the day, also due to a late-night heater, while Peter Johnson (305,000) finished as the only other player above 300K, doing so after having one of the largest stacks in the room for most of the evening.
Others that advanced included Zach Gutierrez (279,000), Kyna England (178,000), Eli Loewenthal (138,000), Krzysztof Stybaniewicz (136,000), and Kevin Eyster (111,000). Plenty more were less fortunate, including the aforementioned likes of Stewart and McMaster as well as other recent MSPT champions Steve Wilkie and Daniel Sepiol. All who did not bag will have two more flights to try and do so, with the next upcoming on Friday at noon local time.
As usual, PokerNews will be back at it then, so be sure to come back and see who else adds their name to Sunday's Day 2 roster.
, but the turn 
changed nothing related to the outcome of the hand, with Kinzer ultimately improving to top two pair to send both players to the rail.
and the under-the-gun player had checked to Morrison, who shoved for 50,200. After some deliberation, a call was made.
fell cleanly in his favor and he scored a full double, with his opponent covering by about 10,000.
as Smith picked up the nut flush draw. The turn 
completed the runout and scored him the double knockout.
