The 2017 MSPT Michigan State Poker Championship at FireKeepers Casino has set the record for the largest poker tournament ever held in the state.
Day 1C attracted 417 runners, which along with 1B’s 406 and 1A’s 244, brought the total field up to 1,067 entries. That was one more than the previous record of 1,066 set in the spring event, and it marked back-to-back $1,000,000+ prize pools at the venue.
That means 108 players will get paid a minimum of $2,170, while the eventual winner will walk away with a $191,196 first-place prize.
After 14 levels of play, just 75 survived from the 1C flight with Detroit’s Jeff Mackey and his stack of 409,000 leading the way. That is ahead of both Day 1A chip leader Nick Bogus (347,000) and 1B leader Daniel Underhill (320,500).
No other player came close to catching Mackey; in fact, the closest competition was Edward Dixon, who bagged 288,000. Rounding out the top five on 1C were Ben Grise (259,000), John Collis (256,000), and Andrew Mills (251,500).
Others to make it through were Imari Love (170,000), Kim Schinco (143,000), last year’s runner-up Cy Church (88,000), 2016 WSOP Main Event 12th-place finisher Mike Shin (83,500), and MSPT Maryland Live! champ Greg Himmelbrand (76,500).
Among those to fall on Day 1C and see their dreams fall to the wayside were former MSPT champs Ken Komberec, Dan Sun, Carter Myers, Satish Thakur, Jason Ramos, Daniel Bekavac, and Keith Heine, who won’t be adding any points to his current Kimo Sabe Mezcal Season 8 Player of the Year lead.
The 192 surviving players from all three starting flights will return at 11 a.m. ET on Sunday and play down to a winner. Not only will we be capturing all the action here in the live blog, but the final table will be live streamed worldwide. Be sure to join us tomorrow!