MSPT Regional Champ Bobby Sanoubane Bags Day 1c Lead; POY Leader Mark Hodge Falls
The third and final starting flight of the Mid-States Poker Tour Golden Gates Casino attracted 223 entrants to Black Hawk, Colorado. Along with Day 1a's 126 and 1b's 161, that brought the total field up to 510 entries – a new record for the stop — and created a $494,700 prize pool, which absolutely obliterated the $200,000 guarantee.
After 16 levels of play, just 40 players bagged chips with Bobby Sanoubane of Aurora, Colorado leading the way with 466,000, which is ahead of both Day 1b chip leader Derek McMaster (450,000) and Day 1a's Ross Reichert (357,500)
Earlier in week, Golden Gates Casino hosted a $360 buy-in $100,000 guaranteed MSPT Regional event, which attracted 770 entrants. Sanoubane, who fired four bullets in the Main Event, took down that tournament for $33,000 after a six-way chop. If there's such a thing as home field advantage in poker, Sanoubane has it.
Others who bagged up big stacks were Nader Wahdan (422,500), James Wilson (392,000), and Steve Baca (362,500). Others who advanced to Day 2 were two time World Series of Poker bracelet winner David Warga, reigning WSOP Millionaire Maker champ Adrian Buckley, Jeff Fielder, and Jose Serratos.
Of course not everyone was so fortunate. Among those to fall on Day 1c were Rex Clinkscales, Allen Kessler, Tyler Corbett, Aaron & Ralph Massey, Travis Nothrope, former MSPT Golden Gates champ Reza Yazdi, MSPT Team Pro Matt Kirby, and current MSPT Player of the Year leader Mark Hodge.
Hodge fell in Level 10 (500/1,000/100) when Wahdan opened for 3,500 under the gun and got five callers, including Hodge with the 
. The flop came down 
with two spades, and Nader bet 6,000. Action folded to Hodge, and he raised to 16,000, which was about half his stack.
Nader made the call and then shoved all in when a third spade hit the turn. Hodge begrudgingly called off and discovered Nader held two spades for a flush. The river failed to help Hodge, and he headed for the exit.
Hodge currently sits atop the MSPT Season 6 Player of the Year Leaderboard with 3,540 points, a solid 540 ahead of second place Blake Bohn, and has already said he'll be at the MSPT stop next weekend at Ho-Chunk Gaming Wisconsin Dells, which you can read more about by clicking here.
Day 2, which will begin with 87 players, will kick off at 12:00 p.m. local time on Sunday and play down to a winner. Who will walk away with the top prize? Be sure to join us then as the PokerNews Live Reporting Team captures all the action!