Day 1b of the Mid-States Poker Tour Season 7 finale at Canterbury Park officially drew 251 runners, which along with Day 1a’s 213 brings the total field up to 464 entrants. That has created a $464,000 total prize pool -- more than double the advertised guarantee -- and will see the top 45 players get paid a minimum of $2,243 with the eventual winner walking away with a $107,659 first-place prize.
After 14 levels of play, just 41 remained with Richard Stevens, who is seeking his first MSPT cash, and his stack of 314,000 leading the way. That is a bit behind the 363,000 of Day 1a chip leader Jim Boone, who will lead the surviving 78 players (37 from Day 1a + 41 1b) when they return at 11 a.m. local time on Sunday to play down to a winner.
Others who advanced from Day 1b were Zeph Baer (286,500), Thomas Dean (280,000), Erick Wright (216,500), Yao “YY” Yin (211,000), Chan Pelton (155,000), Kou Vang (115,000), Minnesota Poker Hall of Famer Mike Schneider (58,500), and married couple Sherry and Tom Hammers, who bagged 46,000 and 28,000 respectively.
The big story of the day was the MSPT Season 7 Player of the Year race. Rich Alsup, who currently sits second on the leaderboard, bagged on Day 1a, so the pressure was on current leader Carl Carodenuto, who has also won the last two MSPT Main Events here at Canterbury Park, and John Sun, who sat in third 500 points behind the leader. Unfortunately, neither player was able to survive the night.
That means all Alsup needs to do to become the MSPT Season 7 Player of the Year is finish in 27th place or better. He’s got the chips and skill to do it. Plus, he’d no doubt like redemption from last season when he finished second to Mark Hodge in the POY race. Obviously Alsup is a MSPT beast!
Among those who fired on Day 1b but failed to advance to Day 2 were EPT Copenhagen champ Tim Vance, four-time World Series of Poker Circuit ring winner Daniel Lowery, MSPT Pros Blake Bohn and Matt Alexander, and former MSPT champs Erv Bjerga, Joe Matheson, and Luke Arora, just to name a few.
Once again, cards will be back in the air at 11:00 a.m. for Sunday’s Day 2. You can join us then for our continuing coverage of the MSPT Season 7 finale at Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minnesota!