Or Krief Takes Overall Lead on Day 1c of the MSPT Black Hawk $1,110 Main Event
Day 1c of the Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) Black Hawk $1,110 Main Event drew 302 entries, the biggest field of all three starting flights to bring the overall field up to 651. After 14 full levels and a few hands, the flight became the first all weekend to play to its scheduled finishing time. Despite the early finish due to a prior hard stop, the allotted timeframe was more than enough for Israel's Haim Or Krief (781,000) to bag the overall chip lead by a massive margin among the 43 that advanced.
Or Krief built up a stack of more than 500,000 by the final hour of the evening, appearing to be a near-lock for the end-of-day chip lead already and well in contention of Day 1b chip leader Michael Wyporowich's 556,000. Then, he turned a full house with pocket deuces and wound up playing for stacks with Anthony Bublitz, who was on his direct left with another one of the top stacks in the room. Or Krief put Bublitz all in and Bublitz called with a flush, resulting in a pot of more than 500K being sent to Or Krief shortly before the end of the night to vault him well clear of anybody else in the field.
Ryan Remington (478,000) and Corey Zedo (407,000) were the next-closest finishers, with Phanora Pham (376,000) and Max Young (294,000) completing the flight's top five counts.
Other notable finishers included John Sun (261,000), Alex Winter (178,000), Kane Lai (125,000), Vincent Moscati (48,000), and Jason Vanstrom (44,000). Plenty more failed to get through, including Danny Gonzales, Scott Stewart, Derek McMaster, Allen Kessler, and Cy Church.
A total of 83 players will return to Bally's Black Hawk Sunday at 11 a.m. to play down to a winner and compete for the top prize of $129,451 with the top 72 finishing in the money. PokerNews will be here to bring you all the way to the finish line, so be sure to come back for all of Sunday's action.