Silverado Franklin

Day 1B of the 2018 MSPT South Dakota State Poker Championship at Silverado-Franklin Casino drew 154 runners. Along with 1A’s 132 it brought the total field up to 286 entries, which makes it the largest major poker tournament by both attendance and prize pool in state history (surpasses the 2009 HPT Lucky Nugget Gambling Hall’s 176 entries/$250,230 prize pool).

The top 36 spots will get paid a minimum of $1,931 while the eventual winner is slated to walk away with $63,462.

This marks the first time the MSPT has partnered with Silverado-Franklin Casino for the South Dakota State Poker Championship, a tournament that dates back to 2011. The biggest prior to this year was 2017’s 136 entries. It also marks the first time a major poker tour has held a stop in Deadwood since 2009.

After 14 levels of play, just 32 players survived the flight with Rick Burleson and his stack of 416,000 leading the pack. That is well ahead of Wyoming’s Ryan Remington, who was the 1A chip leader with 222,000. Burleson is seeking his first MSPT cash.

Others to bag big stacks were Henry Gingerich (219,000), Tony Diehl (161,000), Monte Evans (143,500), and Neal Lemler (143,000), who round out the top five.

They were joined at the end of the night by Jon Wurden (113,000), Mike Headland (93,500), Ken Lybeck (93,500), Brian Berthiaume (69,000), Doug Ficken (53,500), Breanna Skluzak (45,000), Alan Carty (32,500),

Among those to take a shot on Day 1B of the 2018 MSPT South Dakota State Poker Championship but come up short were former MSPT champs Alan Curl, Ted Takasaki, and Rodger Johnson, Minnesota’s Umut Ozturk and Kelly Hendrickson, Colorado’s Sammy Aweida and Jason Beasley, and last weekend’s MSPT Golden Gates runner-up Jeff Heiberg.

Day 2 will get underway at 11 a.m. local time with 54 players (22 from 1A, 32 from 1B) returning to action. We’ll capture all the action here in the live blog and also intend to live stream final table play complete with hole cards and commentary.

The tournament staff just announced the remaining players will play two more hands before bagging and tagging on Day 1B. Stay tuned for a list of chip counts, a recap of the day’s action, and the Day 2 seat draw.

Mike Headland open-jammed for 58,000 from early position and Mickey Stuefen called off for approximately 30,000 from late position.

Stuefen:
Headland:

It was a flip and Headland held on the flop. The turn gave Headland a set which locked him up the hand. The meaningless was run out on the river for good measure and Stuefen headed for the rail.

Mike Headland - 90,000 (38 bb)
Mickey Stuefen - Busted

Neal Lemler opened with a raise and Umut Ozturk, who had the bigger stack, simply three-bet all in to put his opponent to the test.

“I’m gonna gamble,” Lemler said before calling off for 74,300.

Lemler:
Ozturk:

Lemler was in a bad spot but got bailed out by the flop. The turn was no help to Ozturk and neither was the river, which improved Lemler to a full house.

Neal Lemler - 150,000 (63 bb)
Umut Ozurk - 45,000 (19 bb)

Monte Evans (pictured right) opened for 6,000 under the gun and action folded to Cary Long (left), who moved all in for 25,200 from the big blind. Evans called and the hands were turned up.

Long:
Evans:

The board ran out and Long held to double.

Cary Long - 55,000 (23 bb)
Monte Evans - 108,000 (45 bb)

Rick Burleson limped from late position and Monte Evans raised to 10,000 from the button. Kelly Hendrickson then moved all in for 12,200 from the big blind, Burleson folded, and Evans called.

Evans:
Hendrickson:

The flop meant there was a good chance of a chop, but that didn’t stop the boisterous Evans from calling for a six.

The turn wasn’t it, but much to the dismay of Hendrickson, the was. Evans paired his kicker and Hendrickson had no recourse but to head to the exit.

Monte Evans - 100,000 (50 bb)
Kelly Hendrickson - Busted

The preflop action escaped us but we do know that Jim Casement got his stack of roughly 43,000 all in preflop and was at risk against Rick Wells, who barely had him covered.

Wells:
Casement:

It was a flip but Casement needed to improve to stay alive. That proved easier said than done as the board ran out a clean .

Rick Wells - 100,000 (50 bb)
Jim Casement - Busted

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