Potawatomi Casino

The first day of the MSPT Wisconsin State Poker Championship, which for the first time is being held at Milwaukee’s Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, attracted 311 entries. That made it the largest Day 1A flight in MSPT Potawatomi history, and puts the field on pace to surpassed the previous MPST venue record of 635 entries set back in the Spring of 2016.

With a little luck, the tournament could even become the largest major poker tournament ever held in Wisconsin. In order for that to happen, the field will need to grow past the 677 entries from February’s World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event.

After 14 levels of play on Friday night, the field was whittled down to 54 players with Jill Bryant and her stack of 339,000 leading the way. Bryant is a familiar face here at Potawatomi; in fact, in this very tournament one year ago she bagged the Day 1B chip lead with 371,000. She went on to finish in third place for $53,626.

Others to bag big stacks were Lei Zhou (259,000), Voytek Glab (243,500), Brian McDaniel (213,000), and Daniel Bouton (199,500), who round out the top five.

They will be joined on Day 2 by the likes of Ryan Leng (184,500), WSOPC Harveys Lake Tahoe champ Max Young (183,500), MSPT Season 8 Grand Falls champ Ahmed Taleb (172,500), 2017 MSPT Michigan State Poker Champ Chris Meyers (149,000), Howard Hankin (135,000), WSOP bracelet winner Nick Jivkov (128,000), MSPT Season 7 Potawatomi champ Travis Lauson (125,500), and World Poker Tour champs Ravi Raghavan (104,500) and Kevin Saul (63,500).

Of course, not everyone was fortunate enough to survive the night. Among those to try and fall were reigning MSPT Wisconsin State Poker Champion Andy Rubinberg, MSPT Season 6 Player of the Year Mark Hodge, MSPT Season 7 POY Rich Alsup, two-time champ MSPT Jeremy Dresch, and Keith Heine, who currently sits second on the Kimo Sabe Mezcal MSPT Season 8 Player of the Year Leaderboard.

All of those players will have the opportunity to try again in Saturday’s Day 1B flight, which will kick off at 4 p.m. local time and allow players to late register until roughly 10:30 p.m. We have it on good authority some new players, such as online poker legend Mark “P0ker H0” Kroon and inaugural MSPT Wisconsin State Poker Champion Ben Wiora, will be taking a shot.

We’ll be there to capture all the action and eliminations straight from the tournament floor, so be sure to join us then.

The tournament staff just announced the remaining players will play two more hands before bagging and tagging on Day 1A. Stay tuned for a list of survivors with chip counts along with a recap of today’s action.

Josh Reichard raised to 5,400 from the cutoff, and was called by Voytek Glab on the button. Gary Herstein three-bet jammed for 22,700, and Reichard four-bet to 42,000. Glab folded face-up.

“Sorry for the bad beat,” Reichard told Herstein.

Reichard:
Herstein:

The flop gave Reichard eight new outs with his straight draw, and would’ve paired Glab up. The turn was no help, and Reichard said, “Another card!” after the fell on the river, scoring Herstein a critical double.

Josh Reichard - 120,000 (50 bb)
Gary Herstein - 55,000 (23 bb)

With around 30,000 in the pot and a board reading , WPT champ Kevin Saul checked and Todd Burg bet 15,000 from the cutoff.

Saul woke up with an all-in check-raise to 31,300 and Burg thought for a bit before making the call.

“You have a pair?” Saul asked. Burg indicated that he did not. “Me neither.”

Saul:
Burg:

Both players had opposite flush draws, but as it was Saul was ahead with ace high. That’s the card that made the difference after the bricked the river.

Kevin Saul - 99,000 (41 bb)
Todd Burg - 60,000 (25 bb)

There was around 15,000 in the pot when Robert Hesslink bet 7,000 after Todd Burg checked the big blind on a flop. Kevin Saul raised to 18,500, and after a short tank, Burg three-bet jammed with a covering stack. Hesslink thought a moment, then declared himself all-in for 67,500, and Saul mucked his hand.

Hesslink:
Burg:

Burg bemoaned his bad luck at being flopped essentially dead by Hesslink’s set of jacks. The turn ended matters prematurely, and the river was a mere formality.

“Why do you have to have jacks there? I could have doubled up,” Saul said. Hesslink smirked, said nothing, and raked in the pot.

Robert Hesslink - 170,000 (85 bb)
Todd Burg - 100,000 (50 bb)

The preflop action escaped us, but we do know things exploded between three players. Two of them, Jason Bender and Lei Zhou ended up all in for 116,00- and 106,600 respectively, while another played folded the face up.

Bender:
Zhou:

Zhou was a big favorite, and he improved to a set on the flop. Neither the turn nor river made a difference, and Bender sent the vast majority of his stack over to Zhou.

Lei Zhou - 240,000 (120 bb)
Jason Bender - 10,000 (5 bb)

Albert Chiozzi raised to 10,500 from the cutoff, and was called by Songjie Zhou on the button. Mike Shanahan three-bet to 26,000 from the small blind, which Chiozzi called.

Zhou had other ideas though, and four-bet shoved to 121,000, which sent Shanahan deep into the tank. After a few minutes, he released his hand. Chiozzi took about a minute himself, then reluctantly gave his hand up as well, securing the pot for Zhou.

After the hand, Chiozzi admitted he had tens, which Shanahan said he had beat. When asked what he had, Zhou smirked and said, “A pair.”

Songjie Zhou - 180,000 (90 bb)
Albert Chiozzi - 90,000 (45 bb)
Mike Shanahan - 70,000 (35 bb)

We missed the hand play out, but we do know that Cody Brinn got his six-figure stack all in holding pocket kings.

The problem was Jill Bryant, who finished third in this very event one year ago, woke up with pocket aces.

The chips went in, and Brinn went out.

Jill Bryant - 290,000 (145 bb)
Cody Brinn - Busted