Hal Rotholz Cruises Into The Lead Of Day 1b of The Ohio State Championship
Day 1b of The Mid-States Poker Tour $1,100 Main Event in JACK Casino, Cleveland has come to an end with a hard stop being met with 45 players bagging up for the day.
With 27:52 left on the clock in the last level of the day, David Eldridge eliminated one player to bring the field down to 12% of the 375 entrant field. The remaining 45 players have all bagged up and finished slightly earlier than anticipated initially.
A total of 528 players have come to play thus far, hitting the $500,000 guarantee with still one flight to go, ensuring this to be one of the biggest prize pools in Ohio poker history.
The chip leader of the final 45 players in this flight is Hal Rotholz sitting with 517,000, the only player to have eclipsed 500,000. Rotholz played under-the radar most of the day, but quietly accumulated many chips throughout the course of the tourney and with many deep runs in tournaments all over the country, he will be a force going into Day 2.
MSPT Cleveland Day 1b Top Ten Chip Counts
| Place | Name | Chip Counts |
| 1 | Hal Rotholz | 517,000 |
| 2 | Brian Patterson | 459,000 |
| 3 | Jamie Allen | 446,000 |
| 4 | Steve Lekic | 436,000 |
| 5 | Brad Rogoff | 424,000 |
| 6 | Matt Taylor | 419,000 |
| 7 | Dominic Will | 397,000 |
| 8 | Igor Ioffe | 353,000 |
| 9 | James Anderson | 313,000 |
| 10 | Renato Spahiu | 300,000 |
Falling into the top five also include Brian “Brxxx” Patterson with 457,000 and MSPT Iowa Runner-Up Jamie Allen who ended the day with 446,000. Both players were flirting with the chip lead through the majority of the day and each held it briefly in the last few levels of the night.
Other players that found their way to bagging included MSPT regulars Renato Spahiu (300,000) Michael Berk (279,000), Bobby Noel (250,000), WSOP bracelet winner James Anderson (313,000), and David Eldridge (263,000). Matt Taylor created an impressive comeback, being stuck with only 6 big blinds at level 11 and ended the day bagging 419,000.
Players that were not able to cash today included MSPT champions Dan Bekavac, Adam Friedman, Kyna England, Daniel Sepiol, Chris Moon, WSOP bracelet winners Chris Tryba and Joe Ebanks, and Allen “The Chainsaw” Kessler. All of which will have one final flight to try to make Day 2.
Play will begin at 12 p.m. on Saturday with a 25,000 starting and 40-minute blind levels. There will be a 40-minute dinner break following level 9. The players who make it to Day 2 will play with 27:52 left in level 15 barring the play ending earlier tomorrow. Stay tuned to PokerNews for all updates on the tournament.
and had roughly 120,000 in the center. 
for a rivered aces-up and Harrell tossed his hand into the muck. Taylor who was down to 12,000 chips just four levels ago has now spun up his stack to 443,000.
and the small blind player continued for 15,000, which was met with a raise to 45,000 from Spahiu which the small blind called. 
which saw the small blind check and Spahiu move all-in for 128,000 effective, sending his opponent into the tank. After roughly a minute, the opponent folded and Spahiu moved his stack to over 300,000 chips.
and Ebanks bet 50,000, called only by Allen as the other player folded. 
and Ebanks moved all-in for 60,000 effective and Allen snap-called. 
and Allen soared up to the current chip lead.
giving no help to the opponent and he left the tournament area.
giving no assistance to the ace-queen and Friedman exited the tournament area.
