Derek McMaster Leads Advancing 27 Players from Day 1b Field
Season 6 of Mid-States Poker Tour continued on Friday with Day 1b action from the MSPT Golden Gates Casino in Black Hawk, Colorado. The second of three starting flights attracted 161 entrants, which along with Day 1a's 126 brings the current total up 287, which already ensures the $200,000 guarantee is crushed.
The question is, with another starting flight to go, how high will the prize pool climb?
One man who'll be competing for a chunk of it is Derek McMaster, who finished atop the Day 1b counts with a stack of 450,000, which is well ahead of Day 1a chip leader Ross Reichert, who bagged 357,500. Others who bagged after 16 levels of play on Day 1b were Ben Keeline (375,000), William Givens (374,500), and Kyle Wagner (315,500). All told, just 27 players survived the night, meaning with the 20 Day 1a survivors, 47 players have punched their ticket to Sunday's Day 2.
Unfortunately not everyone was so lucky. Kevin "Phwap" Boudreau, who finished fourth in the same tournament a year ago, returned to Golden Gates Casino, but didn't find much luck. He busted early, reentered, and then busted again when he got his stack all in preflop holding pocket aces against pocket kings. A king on the flop put a quick end to Boudreau's day.
Others who fell on Day 1b were former MSPT Golden Gates champ Reza Yazdi, Allen Kessler, Jeff Fielder, Sean Munjal, Mike Harris, Mark Hodge, Matt Kirby, and Aaron Massey.
Massey fell in Level 14 (1,200/2,400/400) when John Vitt opened for 6,500 from the hijack and Tom Heine three-bet to 16,000 from the cutoff. Massey then four-bet jammed for 29,300 from the big blind, Vitt five-bet all in over the top for 86,100, and Heine hit the tank before spiking in a call.
Vitt: 
Heine: 
Massey: 
"That's a problem," Heine said upon seeing he and Massey shared the same hand. Indeed it was, and neither player got lucky as the board ran out 
to give Vitt a full house.
While dozens fell, a select few advances to Day 2 including Rich Dixon (296,500), Bryan Devonshire (178,000), Sylvain Cote (159,000), Danny Gonzalez (108,000), and Kevin Eyster (56,000).
Day 1c will kick off at 12:00 p.m. local time on Saturday with the plan of playing 16 levels. Late registration and reentries are open all day long, and of course the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will there every step of the way.