Potawatomi Casino - Milwaukee, WI
July 12-15, 2018
Main Event: 1,658 Entrants
Eric Barnes Wins Record-Tying MSPT Regional At Potawatomi!
The MSPT Regional Event held at Potawatomi Hotel and Casino in Milwaukee, Wisconsin drew 1,658 entries (411 on Day 1A, 535 1B, and 712 1C) over three starting flights, tying the state record for number of entries in a single tournament, a record set by this very tournament last year. On Sunday, the 263 survivors of the fifth Regional Event to be held at Potawatomi and 25th overall came back to play down to a winner, and after twelve grueling hours of play, Eric Barnes, a computer repair shop owner from Kenosha, WI took down the championship and $70,151 after a three-way chop.
“It was a good run of cards, plus I used my chips to bully the table,” Barnes said about his run to victory, which included three knockouts of the seven eliminated players before the chop. “People just shoved into me, and I had a hand.”
It was Barnes’s third time playing an MSPT tournament, and his first cash, which will add to his $11,102 in recorded tournament cashes via Hendon Mob.
“It was a pretty-straightforward day,” Barnes said about his trip to the final table from a start of the day stack of 154,500, good for thirty-one big blinds at the start of the day. “I won all the flips, I sucked out on a few people, pretty much straight-forward poker 101, you know, you get lucky hear and day, play conservative, and try to chip up.”
When asked what he plans on doing with his winnings, Barnes said, “Actually, I think I’m going to use most of it to put a down payment on a house in Las Vegas, I wanna move there in two years when my daughter is fourteen.”
Final Table Action
The short stack at the final table, Ryan Brady, was the first to fall in Level 33 (100,000/200,000/30,000) when he jammed his last three big blinds with 
from the small blind, and couldn’t overcome the 
of Jefferson Lasecki in the big blind. Brady, who started the day with just 22,000 in chips (4.4 big blinds) had to settle for a $6,259 payday for his tenth-place finish instead.
Frank Cerminara Jr fell in ninth in Level 34 (120,000/240,000/40,000) for $8,185 when he three-bet shoved for 1,235 million and ran into the aces of Jesse Allen, who had opened, and his 
found no help on a 
board.
Jefferson Lasecki was next to fall in Level 35 (150,000/300,000/50,000) when his fives couldn’t overcome the sevens of Eric Barnes, leaving him eighth-place and $10,108 for his efforts. Xay Xiong was next to go when his 
couldn’t over come Barnes and his 
on a 
runout, giving him seventh-place and $13,000.
Level 36 (200,000/400,000/50,000) was the end for Bryan Andrews, when he got his 
in against Barnes and his 
. Andrews got a sweat after the 
flop and turn gave him the nut flush draw, but he was felted when the 
hit the river, giving him $16,370 for his sixth-place finish.
A big flip spelled the end for Michigan’s Allen, after Travis Sweet opened to 1.2 million from the hijack, and Michael Berg three-bet shoved for 5.5 million in the cutoff. Allen snapped off his last 4 million in the big blind, and Sweet folded.
Allen: 
Berg: 
Berg hit top pair on the 
flop, and Allen couldn’t find a queen on the turn or 
river, leaving him heading home $21,667 richer for his fifth place finish.
Berg then met his end at the start of Level 37 (250,000/500,000/50,000) after jamming 4.8 million on the button with and running into the 
of Barnes. No king or spades materialized, and Berg had to settle for fourth-place and $28,407.
The remaining three-players then agreed to an ICM chop that paid out the following amounts:
Eric Barnes: $70,151 (Original 1st Payout: $80,648)
Travis Sweet: $50,901 (Original 2nd Payout: $49,592)
Jeffrey Rasch: $46,743 (Original 3rd Payout: $37,555)
With 171 players slated to be paid, 92 players hit the rail without a payday, including Season 9 MSPT Potawatomi Runner-Up Matt Buhler and Miro Semanisin, last year’s seventh-place finisher in this very event. #MSPT100 Champ Jason Ramos was the unfortunate bubble boy, the result of his eights failing to crack the aces of Brian Birkel.
Players that cashed the event include Final Table bubble boy William Phillips (11th - $6,259), Day 1A chip leader Scott Robinson (15th - $5,296), Day 1B chip leader Daniel Kitzis (23rd - $3,130), Season 7 MSPT Potawatomi sixth-place finisher Leonard Lewandowski (28th - $1,926), Season 4 MSPT Running Aces Champ David Gonia (43rd - $1,493), Season 8 MSPT Potawatomi fourth-place finisher George Dietz (52nd - $1,348), Season 8 Wisconsin State Poker Championship fifth-place finisher Paul Flynn (55th - $1,204), Season 7 MSPT Potawatomi Regional Runner-Up Konstantin Mikhailov (84th - $963), Season 9 MSPT Meskwaki third-place finisher Yanni “John” Orfanos (95th - $867), Mark “P0kerH0” Kroon (107th - $817), Season 7 MSPT Meskwaki Champ John Sun (131st - $722), and Season 7 MSPT Michigan State Poker Championship Runner-Up Cy Church (151st - $674).