Brockway Leads, Kirby Second as 29 Advance
Day 1a of the 2015 Mid-States Poker Tour Canterbury Park Main Event wrapped up after 14 levels of play, and Brad Brockway finished with the biggest stack, 267,000.
Brockway won two sizable pots late to rocket up the counts in the night's final level (1,200/2,400/400). First, he tank-called a 54,000-chip shove from Jeremy Dresch on a completed board of 
with the 
. Dresch showed down the 
, having tried to buy the pot after missing his combo draw. Shortly after that, Brockway fired 12,000 from the button on an 
board and saw his opponent shove all in for about 45,000. Brockway snapped it off with 
, and his opponent showed he'd gotten unlucky with 
. The one-outer didn't come.
Closely trailing Brockway in second is one of the most familiar faces on the tour, MSPT team pro Matt Kirby, who ended with 250,500. Kirby has already booked two first-place finishes and a runner-up on the tour, and Canterbury Park has been good to him recently as well. He won two events here during the Fall Poker Classic, including the Main Event for over $84,000.
With 189 runners, the tournament nearly hit the 15-percent mark, a rare event that would have put an early end to the night. Other survivors included Ray Monsoor (224,500), Thao "Scratch" Thiem (201,500), James Maxey (193,000), Wade Woelfel (158,500), David Gutfreund (151,000), Todd Breyfogle (145,000), Judd Greenagel (132,500), and Gennady Shimelfarb (87,500).
A long list of notables fired one or two bullets on Day 1a without success. That list included "East Coast" Mike Ross, Nick Jivkov, Mike Lang, Peixin Liu, Nathan Bjerno, Kou Vang, Mike Schneider, Mark Sandness, Lance Harris, Adam Dahlin, and tour points leader Mark Hodge.
Hodge fell to Thiem late in Level 12 (800/1,600/200), when he called "Scratch's" three-bet in a button-versus-blind spot and then bluff-shoved a 
flop, only to see "Scratch" turn up two aces. Hodge had a stone cold bluff with the 
, and he sent his stack to his fellow Minnesotan.
Hodge and the rest of the fallen will have a mulligan on Saturday on Day 1b, when they can fire two final bullets. PokerNews will be back on hand then for more live coverage, so stay tuned.