Phil Gioia Leads 37 Surviving Day 1b Players
The second and final starting flight of the Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) Grand Falls Casino $1,100 buy-in, $200K GTD Main Event is in the books. Day 1b attracted 257 runners during Saturday's action, bringing the grand total to 488 entries (231 from Day 1a; 257 from 1b), putting it just behind the record-breaking field from this past August.
While Grand Falls Casino is situated just outside Sioux Falls, South Dakota, it is technically located just across the border in Larchwood, Iowa. Despite being a bit remote, players flocked from the Midwest as well as Colorado, Florida, and Vegas. The turnout was evidence that, despite the current pandemic, there is a big demand for live tournament poker.
After the completion of Level 15, just 37 players bagged and tagged with Phil Gioia and his stack of 488,000 leading the way. That was a bit behind of Day 1a chip leader Paul Carney, who bagged 513,000.
Others to punch their tickets to Day 2 were Josh Matti (465,000), Kyna England (364,000), Jack Do (337,000), and Tim Garles (324,000).
Of course, not everyone was fortunate enough to make it through the night. Among those to fire and fall in Saturday's flight were MSPT Hall of Famer Jason Seitz, along with MSPT Champion's Rob Wazwaz, Keith Heine, Josh Meyer and Jonathan Kim, just to name a few.
Day 2 will get underway at 11 a.m. local time and play to a winner with 67 players returning to the felt. The top 54 finishers will get paid with the eventual winner walking away with a $105,833 first-place prize.
PokerNews will be on hand to capture all the action, so be sure to join us then.