Reigning MSPT POY Pat Steele Among 83 Players Seeking $120,164 First-Place Prize
The Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) Potawatomi Hotel & Casino in Milwaukee has proved a tremendous success; in fact, it's the second-largest Main Event in MSPT history behind this past summer's MSPT Venetian. With 246 Day 1a entries and 241 from Day 1b, the total field stands at 487, which created a prize pool of $487,000, a record for the state of Wisconsin.
Today, 83 players will return for Day 2 action, but of those just 45 will get paid. A minimum payday is worth $2,352, but of course everyone has their eyes firmly fixed on the $120,164 first-place prize. The man best positioned to make a run at it is Day 1a chip leader David Brown, who bagged up 312,000. Not too far behind is Frank Swierczynski (295,500), Day 1b chip leader Matt Anderson (280,500), reigning MSPT Player of the Year Pat Steele (277,500), Dan Goepel (263,500), Kenny Go (253,000), and John Sun (244,500).
Others returning to action, albeit with bit shorter stacks, are Jay Slonske (205,500); Paul “Big Daddy” Elfelt (147,000); Larry Ormson (117,500); “Wild Bill” Romer (113,000); former MSPT champs Ken Baime (202,000) and Jason Zarlenga (68,500); Mike Deis (150,000), who is currently second on the MSPT POY leaderboard; MSPT Team Pro Matt Alexander (107,500); and World Series of Poker bracelet winner Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin (55,500).
Day 2 is set to kick off at 10:30 a.m. CT, which is less than an hour from now. The plan is to play down to a winner no matter how long it may take, and of course the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be on hand to capture all the action as well as to live stream the final table action once the field is down to the final 10 players. Stay tuned!