Who Will Walk Away with the MSPT FireKeeper's Title
Today, the Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) FireKeepers Casino in Battle Creek, Michigan will crown a champion. What began with 411 entrants — a number considerably larger than last year's 301 — is now down to the final 65, of which 45 will split the $397,170 prize pool and walk away with a minimum payday of $1,986.
There are plenty of notable still in contention for the $101,482 first-place prize, including Day 1c and overall chip leader Nick Perkins, who will start today with 368,500. Only two other players, Frank Galilei (311,000) and John Michalak (308,000) will start Day 2 with over 300K in chips, and amazing they amasses those stacks on Day 1c as well. As for the other starting flight leaders, Day 1b's Carter Myers will begin with 273,000 while Day 1a's Scott Hammett has 212,500.
Others returning to action today include MSPT regular "Wild Bill" Romer; grinder Taylor Tollefson (210,500); MSPT Majestic Star champ Ken Baime (179,000); Wisconsin's Ken Payne (96,500); MSPT Running Aces third-place finisher Tyler Caspers (83,500); and Adam Lamphere (45,500), who has finished runner-up here at FireKeepers the first two times the MSPT rolled into town, though he faces an uphill battle as he begins the day as the fifth-shortest stack.
Play kicks off at 10 a.m. local time, which is less than an hour from now. The plan is to play all day long, and eventually the final table of ten will be set. At that point there will be a 45-minute dinner break and then the final table will be live streamed (we'll still be providing live updates). The MSPT's Byran Mileski and WSOP and HPT champ Adam Friedman will be providing commentary on the live stream.
The cards will be in the air shortly, so stay tuned!
For more on the MSPT stop at FireKeepers, visit MSPTpoker.com.