Meskwaki Casino: March 12 - 20, 2016

With 20 minutes remaining on Day 1a of the Mid-States Poker Tour Meskwaki Main Event – a tournament that attracted 409 entries and created a $409,000 prize pool – 34-year-old Keith Heine had a tough decision to make – to gamble or limp into Day 2 with a short stack. He made his decision, and ultimately it lead to him capturing the title and a $100,981 first-place prize.

You might be thinking Heine opted to limp into Day 2, but that wasn't the case. He decided to gamble and picked a spot with king-nine, which he promptly ran into ace-queen to bust. While he had satellited into Day 1a, Heine opted to buy in direct on Day 1b, which led to him bagging 253,000 and advancing to Day 2 sixth in chips out of 71 returning players.

With 45 players slated to get paid, 26 players would leave empty handed. They included Jeff Bryan, Jason Bender, Tom Frith, Todd "Odds" Haugen, Tom Hammers, and Steve Houle, who finished as the bubble boy.

From there, the in-the-money finishes began to mount and included Rodger Johnson (45^th - $1,976), Rick Syverud (41^st - $1,976), Scotter Clark (34^th - $2,174), Josh Reichard (25^th - $2,450), Jack Parisi (21^st - $2,450), Day 1b chip leader Brian Berthiaume (18^th - $3,122), Allen Kessler (15^th - $3,952), and defending champ Rich Alsup (13^th - $3,952).

The play down from 12 to the final 10 took longer than expect, which meant by the time the final table rolled around players were on the shorter side of things. That meant for a lot of fireworks during which time a lot of players were burned including Chris Scionti (9^th - $7,910), two-time MSPT champ Dan Sun (8^th - $11,462), and Day 1a chip leader and former MSPT champ Muneer "Moon" Ahmed (5^th - $22,528).

With four players left action was fast and furious. First Heine dispatched MSPT champ TJ Ryan in fourth – the result of Ryan running pocket fours into Heine's jacks – and then turned right around and finished off a short-stacked Jason Crews in third.

That allowed Heine to take a commanding lead into heads-up play against Omaha cash game player Ryan Phan. Heine crippled Phan in back-to-back hands and then finished him off with jack-ten, which flopped two pair against Phan's five-three after they got it all in preflop.

Final Table Results

Prior to the win, Heine had just $12,850 in live tournament cashes, most of which came when he finished runner-up in the 2015 World Poker Tour Choctaw Event #14: $350 No-Limit Hold'em for $9,150. Now, Heine has nearly ten times that amount, which he intends to spend on his wife and four sons (ages nine, seven, five and three) by putting it towards a new house.

"So many things are going through my heads, tt's crazy," Heine said after the win. "I've got four kids and a wife. They're number one. We currently want to build a house. We've been wanting to try to build a house, so this should really help with this."

Speaking of Heine's wife, Kim, who he met 13 year ago, she was actually in a serious car accident the last time Heine played the MSPT Meskwaki Main Event.

"My wife got in a car accident the last time I was here," he explained. "I was in Day 2 of this tournament when she got hit head on with three of my kids in the car. They're all fine, but I got that call during the tournament. I was big stacked, but once I got that call my tournament was over. That was the last time I was here back in July."

Thankfully everyone turned out fine, but as Heine said he had to give up on the tournament last year. That makes his win a redemption story of sorts.

"I like the MSPT," Heine said when asked what brought him back. "I like other tours, but the MSPT is my favorite. I don't get to play as much as a lot of players. I have a job and family. I don't consider myself a professional, but I consider myself in between an amateur and professional. I play a lot at home when I can."

Congratulations to Keith Heine, the latest MSPT Meskwaki champ!

Results