Meskwaki Casino

Day 1A Wraps Up, Jovan Sudar Leads Flight

A field littered with top-tier MSPT players took their seats within the Meskwaki Veteran’s Convention Center at the Meskwaki Bingo Casino Hotel in Tama, Iowa for the 2019 MSPT Iowa State Poker Championship and Jovan Sudar emerged as the top chip stack for Day 1A.

Sudar put away 346,500 chips to edge out Jason Seitz who bagged 317,000 for second place. John Sun was third with 270,000 chips followed by Jon Hanner with 266,000 and Steve Wazwaz rounded out the top five with 259,500. Keith Heine wound up the day with 124,000 chips, Dan Sun also moved on with 115,000 and Mike Shin continued his incredible 2019 season putting away 60,000 chips to advance to Day 2.

Among the notables who did not advance out of Day 1A include MSPT Hall of Famers Aaron Johnson, Kou Vang and Rich Alsup along former MSPT Iowa champions Ken Komberec, Taylor Howard, Brian Soja and Steve Federspiel. Also not making the cut today were past MSPT Champions TJ Ryan and Rob Wazwaz along with WSOP bracelet winners Chad Holloway and John Reading plus 2016 MSPT Player of the Year Mark Hodge, two-time WSOP Circuit Event winner Ryan Tepen and Joe Barnard

For the flight,164 entries were recorded taking the tournament well over halfway to its $300,000 guarantee with 21 players having advanced to Day 2. Day 1B will kick off on Saturday at 3 PM and will be the final opportunity for our players to reach Day 2 and play for the championship. Sunday’s play will resume at 11 AM here at Meskwaki Bingo Casino Hotel.

Congratulations to everyone who advanced to Day 2 and we’ll see you back here tomorrow afternoon on the Mid-States Poker Tour from Tama, Iowa!

Three Hands To Go

The clock has been stopped with ten minutes remaining in Day 1A. The flight will play three more hands to conclude the evening before we wrap things up this evening. We’ll have our final updates and recap posted to end our coverage of Day 1A of the MSPT 2019 Iowa State Poker Championship.

Orfanos' Kings Beat Hammers' Jack

We’re deep into the end-of-day procedures now, and with fewer than 25 of today’s 164 entrants remaining every chip counts and every hand could be your last. And when you find Jacks with a short stack, you move all in. Unfortunately for Sherry Hammers, sometimes your 42,000 chip shove runs headlong into Kings, and such an occurrence happened when Yanni Orfanos woke up with against Hammers’ .

With so many red face cards in hand, the board coming all black was to be expected. A Flop added split outs to Hammers’ hopes, which the dashed on the turn. A river was overkill, giving Orfanos the full house and the knockout. Hammers hits home, while Orfanos climbs back up over 125,000 with the knockout.

Seitz Straight-Over-Straights Fick

A big hand was brewing between Seats 2 and 3 over at Table 13, and in the end Jason Seitz came away with the pile.

A small preflop raise from the small blind Seitz was called by Fick.

Flop:

Seitz checked, Fick bet 5,000, and Seitz called.

Turn:

Now things start to get interesting: after Seitz checked, Fick bet 7,000. Seitz elected to raise to 16,000. After some deliberation, Fick announced a reraise to 42,000, and cut out the pinks and blues to match the wager he called. Seitz took a while to deliberate, checking his hand once or twice and shuffling a few chips, before ultimately calling.

River:

Seitz checked the River as well. Fick cut out 35,000, and Seitz couldn’t call with just about all of his chips fast enough. Fick flipped up for the low end of the straight, but Seitz turned up for the higher one and collected the massive pot.

Seitz has 105,000 at last check, while Fick is down to 140,000.

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Shin Wins, Winter Eliminated

Mike Shin is on a tear. The 2019 Mid-States Poker Tour Player of the Year race is almost a two-horse race at this point between Mike and his nearest competitor Brian Wilson. Shin possesses a 775-point lead over his next closest competitor, thanks to his win in January at the Majestic Star Casino in East Chicago, Illinois, for $68,593 and also a 3rd-place finish at this summer’s Venetian Main Event for a cool $334,000 last month, and after Wilson it’s another 1,000 points before you get to Brian Hou in 3rd. For reference, a tournament’s winner will probably earn about 1,400 points towards POY, depending on the event’s size.

Shin is the only member of the top ten in the POY race in attendance today for Day 1A of the Iowa State Championship, and recently took out Alex Winter. You might know him better as “Alex F’n Winter,” a Roseville, Minnesota resident who burst onto the MSPT scene last April and has been racking up final tables ever since. But this was not Winter’s day, as Shin took him down.

In blind-versus blind action, Shin went all in for Winters’ 25,000 or so chips and Winters called with . Shin flipped over . The showed up right away in the window, and the run-out came Winter hit the rail. Shin still has a lot of work left to do, however, as he only has about 70,000 in chips at last check, well behind the chip leaders.

Heine Hold On

Keith Heine started off with a raise to 6,000 in the middle position. Robert Watters, in the big blind, then re-raised it to 16,000 with the lone caller from Heine.

The flop showed and Watters made the continuation bet of 16,000. Heine counted his chips as he tanked before he pushed all in for 50,500. Watters called and the cards were flipped up.

Heine:
Watters:

Watters had hope with 2 over cards but the didn’t help Watters. Heine was then relieved to see the river.

Falling Fast

Level 13 has not been very lucky.

In fact, the biggest story of the level has been the incredible pace of eliminations that have taken place through the last forty minutes. Ten of the forty players who were still alive were quickly ousted taking the field down to thirty players with over two levels still to go.

If this pace keeps up, the possibility of reaching the 12% threshold – in this case nineteen players - is definitely within reach. We’ll see if we keep seeing players fall quickly as the action speeds toward a conclusion here on Day 1A.

Runner-Runner Nothing Funner

Three way action got heated up as the flop showed when Jay Goughnour, in the big blind, made a bet of 14,000 putting Benjamin O’Brien, in middle position, all in for 13,000. Kevin Berthelson made the call, on the button, to create side action.

The turn showed the . Berthelson and Goughnour checked to see the river for the . Berthelson then bet 15,000 and Goughnour called. All the cards were tabled.

O’Brien:
Berthelson:
Goughnour:

O’Brien didn’t get the run out he was hoping for, while Berthelson raked in the chip.

The Sun Also Rises

John Sun has been here before. The Milwaukee, Wisconsin native has $205,641 lifetime earnings on the MSPT circuit, including a win right here in Tama, Iowa, in 2016. He’s in the hunt for another Iowa State Championship again, after taking down another player just after the final break of the evening.

In blind-versus-blind action, Sun found himself slightly behind.

Sun:

Opponent:

A King showed up right in the window, and the rest of the run out was favorable (). Sun added about 30,000 to his stack, and in doing so topped the 300,000 chip mark for the tournament.