Umut Ozturk Leads the Day 1b Pack at 2019 MSPT Wisconsin State Poker Championship
The second of three starting flights has been played to its conclusion with 233 entries on Day 1b bringing the two-day total to 353. Umut Ozturk (402,000) found himself atop the counts when the day came to an end, finishing as the only player above 400,000.
Ozturk was seen with a comfortable stack throughout most of the day after registering shortly after play began. That was only the beginning though, as he found pocket aces twice at the right time in the last two hours, winning two huge pots and scoring two knockouts along the way. The second knockout brought him just below 350,000, and he chipped up a bit from there to reach his final resting total for the day.
Second in chips for the day was former MSPT Potawatomi champ Dan Goepel (392,000). Goepel busted his first bullet of the tournament within the first few hands after running the second nuts into the nuts. However, he got back in on the action and hung around for several hours before winning a huge coin flip to double during Level 11. That proved to be the turning point, as he continued to climb from there and looked to be a lock for the end-of-day chip lead until Ozturk made his charge.
Rob Wazwaz rounds out the top three, finishing the day with 374,000. Wazwaz had 130,000 during the penultimate level of the night before finding pocket kings and three-betting, only to see the original opener four-bet to put him all in with ten-nine suited. The pot put him over 250,000, and he increased that number by nearly another 50 percent before chips went into bags.
In total, 26 players advanced from the flight after two eliminations occurred on the final hand of play. Several of those to advance included familiar players around the MSPT such Nick Pupillo (250,000), Mike Shin (178,000), Yao "YY" Yin (123,000), and Andy Tran (46,000).
Many others, including Aaron Massey, Ralph Massey, John Sun, Alex Winter, and Ahmed Taleb were among those less fortunate and unable to find a bag during Friday’s heat. All players who have yet to qualify for Day 2 will have one final shot to do so on Saturday’s Day 1c, which will begin at 1 p.m. local time.
PokerNews will be back at it for the final heat to provide coverage as the Day 2 field looks to be solidified. Make sure to come back to see who will add their name to the list of 42 to have already done so.