Toomas Takes Commanding Lead Heading into Day 2
The final starting flight is in the books at the Mid Stakes Poker Tour's (MSPT) United States Poker Championship from Sycuan Casino.
There were 185 runners who took their shot at poker glory today for the $300,000 guaranteed tournament and 22 of them survived the night.
Leading the way is Elvis Toomas from Glendale California. He bagged an eye-popping 737,000 chips and will have a huge advantage heading into the final day. Toomas has more than $400,000 in recorded earnings and just won a tournament last month in Los Angeles.
Some of the other players to bag a big stack tonight include Suhail Khan (454,000), Adrian Lopez (450,000), Stefano Calenzani (383,000), and Rich Lanes (312,000).
Gianluca Pace, who won the Main Event here at Sycuan in January, had an incredible comeback. He was left with 400 chips at one point and went on to bag an impressive 267,000.
Over the three starting flights, the total number of entries was 436, smashing the guarantee. The 55 players who advanced will return Sunday, September 25th at 11:00 a.m. where they play down to the winner. 1st place will take home $92,712 and the trophy that goes along with it.
Keep up with the all updates here on PokerNews as a new MSPT champion is crowned.
flop Suhail Khan shoved and Jonathan McGowan called to put himself at risk. 
runout only improved Khan to trip aces and he became one of the chip leaders as play begins to wind down.
flop. Klassen flopped the nut flush and 
runout changed nothing as he put a dent in the stack of Toomas.
runout was no help as Baghdasarian moved to about a quarter million.
improved him to trips and Wakita needed a queen or a ten. The river brought the 
. 
