Brian Beck opened in early position and was three-bet by Slater Dean in the small blind. Beck called to bring a flop of , where Dean jammed for 142,000 more. Beck called.
Slater Dean:
Brian Beck:
The floor announced another elimination had ensued, bringing the tournament just one elimination from bursting the bubble, putting Dean at immediate risk of becoming the Bubble Boy. Instead, he was saved by running , making an eight-high straight to score the pot of nearly half a million.
A moment later, Ben Jensen was all in for his remaining chips having received action from Cy Church.
Ben Jensen:
Cy Church:
Jensen flopped a backdoor flush draw and gutshot wheel draw on , but running left him dry as Church scooped the pot with top set and eliminated Jensen in 109th place.
One hundred and forty-four players will return to Bally's Black Hawk on Sunday at 11 a.m. local time for Day 2 of the Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) $360 Regional. Four starting flights produced 998 total entries, creating a prize pool of $299,400 that 16 tables' worth of players will compete for with $55,383 set to go to the eventual champion.
Day 1a chip leader James Rodriguez (670,000) saw his end-of-day total from the very first flight wind up completely uncontested by the three remaining flights, none of which produced a bag of more than 500,000. Day 1b chip leader Jerry Morrell (488,000) fell just shy of that mark and enters the day second in chips.
Keith Wright (388,000), who bagged the Day 1 chip lead finished fourth in chips through the combined field, while Day 1d chip leader Matthew Ludiker (370,000) finished just outside the top five overall, though his stack of nearly 62 big blinds gives him plenty of room to work with as he comes into the day sixth in the counts.
Other notable players to enter the day with well-above-average stacks include Tan Hoang (346,000), Ryan Dodson (334,000), Zach Gutierrez (277,000), and Steve Wilkie (275,000).
James Rodriguez
The talent doesn't stop there going down the leader board either, as Ben Keeline (227,000), Danny Gonzales (209,000), Phil Gioia (181,000), Aaron Frei (160,000), and Adrian Buckley (124,000) are still just a fraction of those still well in contention to make a charge to the top.
Two more players of note are that of Erasmus Morfe (208,000) and Alex Kotliarsky (285,000). The pair chopped the last MSPT Black Hawk $360 Regional Event heads up in January 2020, with Morfe taking home the trophy and top prize of $53,048 and Kotliarsky earning $43,000. Kotliarsky bagged a top-five stack on Day 1a and has enjoyed the last three days off, while Morfe joined the party on Saturday's final flight and got through with an above-average stack as well.
Erasmus Morfe
Like Day 1, levels will last 30 minutes until the very end of the tournament. Play will resume in Level 16 (3,000/6,000/6,000) with 10-minute breaks occurring at the completion of every four levels, or two hours of play. Per MSPT structure, the tournament will revert from a big-blind ante to a traditional ante when the final three tables are reached with 27 players remaining.
The top 108 places will make it into the money, meaning there's plenty of work still to be done before reaching that mark as exactly one-quarter of the Day 2 field will walk away empty-handed. A first-level payout will earn players $629, with payouts increasing at regular intervals all the way down to the final table, where everybody will be guaranteed more than $5,000 worth of profit on their buy-in.
Payout Information
Place
Prize
1
$55,383
2
$34,132
3
$25,449
4
$18,862
5
$14,371
6
$11,078
7
$8,683
8
$6,587
9
$5,389
10-12
$4,192
13-15
$3,593
16-18
$2,934
19-21
$2,455
22-24
$2,036
25-27
$1,707
28-36
$1,317
37-45
$1,018
46-54
$928
55-63
$838
64-72
$778
73-81
$749
82-90
$719
91-99
$659
100-108
$629
PokerNews has been bringing you updates from the very first second of the tournament and will maintain the status quo until a champion has been crowned. Be sure to stick around.
, where Dean jammed for 142,000 more. Beck called.
, making an eight-high straight to score the pot of nearly half a million.
, but running 
left him dry as Church scooped the pot with top set and eliminated Jensen in 109th place.
