The pandemic took its toll on all live poker tournaments and tours in 2020, but the mid-majors took it quite hard. One of them – the Heartland Poker Tour – didn’t make it through. But the Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) was determined to do whatever was necessary to hold on. And they’ve done more than that; they’ve thrived.
Not even six months after the initial March 2020 shutdowns of casinos and cardrooms – and nearly everything else – across the country, MSPT worked with one of its casino partners to host a very carefully-planned and cautious (and sanitary) tournament. The action took place at the Grand Falls Casino in Iowa, and the tournament was quite successful. In fact, it set a record for the number of entries and created a $500,960 prize pool, far beyond the $150K guarantee.
Another Covid-19 case surge in the United States prompted another pause in the poker action, but the MSPT rose again in November. Confidence was high, and the MSPT hosted two Main Event tournaments at the Venetian in Las Vegas. The first one offered a $200K guarantee but brought in 1,123 entries to push the prize pool to $1,089,310. The second one had a $400K guarantee, but the 1,239 entries created a $1,771,770 prize pool.
Poker was back. The tenacity of the team at the MSPT and the tour’s casino partners made it happen.
The MSPT kicked off 2021 with a relatively full schedule. And it now goes into the second half of the year with quite a lot of momentum.
Strong Numbers in Early 2021
After the strong showing in November at the Venetian, the MSPT kicked off its new year with another big one in Las Vegas. From there, the tour headed to South Dakota and back to Nevada, then to Iowa and California before a return to South Dakota.
-MSPT Venetian in Las Vegas: $1,100 ($250K GTD) = 1009 entries, $978,730 prize pool--James Carroll won for $180,850-MSPT Grand Falls Casino in Sioux Falls, SD: $1,100 ($200K GTD) = 488 entries, $471,860 prize pool--Chad Bjorkman won for $101,450-MSPT Venetian in Las Vegas: $1,100 Poker Bowl V ($350K GTD) = 908 entries, $880,760 prize pool--Johnny Oshana won for $130K-MSPT Riverside Casino in Iowa: $1,100 ($200K GTD) = 862 entries, $836,140 prize pool--Daniel Sepiol won for $162,750-MSPT Sycuan Casino in San Diego, CA: $1,100 ($300K GTD) = 676 entries, $654,220 prize pool--Alejandro Jauregui won for $140,665-MSPT Silverado-Franklin in Deadwood, SD: $1,100 ($100K GTD) = 585 entries, $567,450 prize pool--Taylor Howard won for $119,165
https://twitter.com/TheRealTayHow/status/1394180827492220930?s=20
Most recently, the MSPT was at the Venetian on the Las Vegas Strip again, this time for two Main Event tournaments, both with the biggest guarantees since pre-pandemic times.
The first was an $1,100 buy-in affair with a $1.5M guarantee. Four starting days delivered a total of 2,790 entries, though, so the prize pool soared to $2,692,350. The final table included names like Aaron Massey and Jonathan Tamayo, but it was Harlen Miller who emerged victorious for $367,801.
The second upped the buy-in to $1,600 but also increased the guarantee to $2M. That one, too, delivered to exceed the promised prize pool. The 2,011 entries equaled $2,865,675 in the prize pool, and the payouts to the final table finishers surpassed $1M on its own. That final table was stacked with good players. When it all played out last week (June 14), Eric Baldwin finished third, and Peter Braglia took second. Longtime pro Chance Kornuth achieved yet another tournament victory for his career, this one with a payday of $412,086.
https://twitter.com/msptpoker/status/1404602323062562820?s=20
More MSPT on Tap
The year is far from over for the Mid-States Poker Tour. There are another six events on the schedule, though more may be added as vaccine distribution increases and pandemic-related illnesses remain low.
For now, it looks like this:
-July 23-25: MSPT Iowa at Riverside Casino, part of Iowa State Poker Championship ($200K GTD)-Aug 4-15: MSPT Blackhawk Showdown Series at Golden Gates Casino in Colorado (200K GTD)-Aug 20-22: MSPT South Dakota at Grand Falls Casino in Sioux Falls ($200K GTD)-Sept 16-27: MSPT San Diego at Sycuan Casino in California, part of US Poker Championship ($300K GTD)-Oct 22-24: MSPT Deadwood at Silverado Casino in South Dakota ($100K GTD)-Dec 2-5: MSPT Minnesota at Canterbury Park in Shakopee ($500K GTD)
https://twitter.com/msptpoker/status/1405523345316061189?s=20
We should also note that the Season 12 Player of the Year race is underway. Cy Church has a solid lead at this point with 3,275 points, having accumulated five cashes so far, two of them top-ten finishes. Jordan Cristos is in second on the leaderboard with 2,300 and Kyna England close behind with 2,200.
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