Potawatomi Casino

Day 1a of the Mid-States Poker Tour Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, the penultimate stop of our seventh season, drew an unexpected 269 entrants, which easily surpassed the advertised $200,000 guarantee. With Saturday’s Day 1b expected to be even bigger, there’s no telling just how big the prize pool will grow.

After 14 levels of play Friday night, 49 players remained with Songjie Zhou and his stack of 283,000 leading the way. Meanwhile, Erika Obst (pictured above), the only woman to advance, was second in chips with 247,000.

Not far behind with 211,000 was MSPT Season 6 Meskwaki champ Rich Alsup. If you recall, Alsup finished runner-up last weekend to his good friend Carl Carodenuto in the MSPT Golden Gates Main Event. The win gave Carodenuto the lead in the MSPT Season 7 Player of the Year race while Alsup was just 200 points behind him.

Making things even more interesting is that Carodenuto missed his flight to Milwaukee today, meaning Alsup had put himself in a good position to pass his friend. However, Carodenuto is expected to arrive in time for Day 1b, so there’s really no telling what could happen.

Others who punched their ticket to Sunday’s Day 2 were Kou Vang (236,000), Mike Holm (188,000), Gerald Heckathorn (186,500), Aaron Johnson (133,500), Ravi Raghavan (110,500), and Mike Shin (56,500), who you may recall as finishing in 12^th place in this year’s World Series of Poker Main Event.

Of course not everyone could make it through. Among those to fall on Day 1a were MSPT Season 6 Player of the Year Mark Hodge, MSPT Pro Blake Bohn, former MSPT Potawatomi champs Travis Lauson and Dan Goepel, Potawatomi Regional champ Vinh Tran, 2016 MSPT Wisconsin State Poker champ Andy Rubinberg, and MSPT champs Aaron Massey, Josh Reichard, and Ken Baime, just to name a few.

The good news is they’ll all have the opportunity to try again on Day 1b if they so choose. The second and final starting flight will begin at 4 p.m. local time on Saturday. Once again we’ll bring you all the action right here in the MSPT Live Updates, so be sure to join us then. In the meantime, good night from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Songjie Zhou 283,000
Erika Obst 247,000
Kou Vang 236,000
The Nguyen 225,500
Rich Alsup - 211,000
Mike Holm 188,000
Gerald Heckathorn 186,500
Robert Esperes 161,000
Bryan Moon 154,000
Jay Goldenberg 150,000
Vadim Trovpemec 145,000
Albert Chiozzi 139,000
Derek Dunifer 136,000
Aaron Johnson 133,500
Vinh Ho 128,000
Randy Berdan 124,000
Cody Brinn 123,500
Steve Alonzo 123,500
Michael Greenen 121,000
Randy Perkins 114,500
Michael Kamenjarin 113,000
Jason Reno 111,000
Ravi Raghavan 110,500
Shane Cuccia 104,500
Ronald Wilfer 102,500
John Reading 91,000
Sam Rameshk 89,500
Umesh Babusukumar 89,500
Justin Lee 89,500
Robert Scaturo 89,500
John Nelson 88,000
Scott Obst 83,500
Jefferson Lasecki 69,500
Gerardo Perez 67,500
Ken Garbowicz 67,500
Timothy Moehrle 65,500
Bruce Swart 65,500
Robert Thomas 63,000
Roger Kregelka 58,500
Jim Boone 58,000
Mike Shin 56,500
Douglas Timmer 55,500
Michael Kopczynski 53,000
David Grandin 50,500
Vicente Hunog 41,000
Garry Kalmanovich 40,000
Vlad Revniaga 33,000
Stephen Lark 27,000
Robert Hesslink 21,500

The tourament staff just announced the remaining players will play three more hands before bagging and tagging for the night. Stay tuned for a list of survivors with chips counts as well as a full recap of the Day 1a action.

We missed the preflop action unfold, but we do know that MSPT regular Jim Boone, who last weeked finished 15th in the MSPT Golden Gates Main Event for $6,179, five-bet all in and Vadim Trovpemec snap-called for 51,200.

Trovpemec:
Boone:

Boone held the granddaddy of all hands, but he fell way behind when the flop delivered Trovpemec a set. Neither the turn nor river helped Boone and he sent over a good portion of his stack.

“How does that happen?” an exasperated Boone asked.

Vadim Trovpemec - 105,000
Jim Boone - 75,000

Rin Nguyen - 232,000
Songje Zhou - 210,000
Rich Alsup - 200,000
Erika Obst - 180,000
Cody Brinn - 165,000
Gerald Heckathor - 135,000
Mike Holm - 133,000
Bryan Moon - 125,000
Kou Vang - 110,000
John Reading - 110,000
Mike Kamenjarin - 100,000
Aaron Johnson - 100,000
Jason Reno - 95,000
Mike Shin - 80,000
Jimmy Dennis - 80,000
Ravi Raghavan - 75,000
Jefferson Lasecki - 72,000
Roger Kregelka - 60,000
Cero Zuccarello - 41,000
Sherry Hammers - 30,000
Mike Mustafa - 17,000
David Gutfreund - Busted
Dan “DQ” Hendrickson - Busted
Jason Stansell - Busted

Players are now on their last 10-minute break of the night. When they return they’ll play two more levels before bagging and tagging for the night.

A short-stacked player got his last 16,000 all in preflop and found himself at risk against John Reading, who if you recall topped a field 1,436 players to win the 2015 World Series of Poker Event #6: $1,000 Hyper Hold’em for $252,068.

Reading:
Opponent:

Sherry Hammers admitted that she folded queen-jack, but that didn’t matter as Reading took the lead on the flop. The turn and river were of no consequence, and Reading sent yet another player to the rail.

John Reading - 125,000

Scott Obst opened for 4,300 from the hijack and a short-stacked Cero Zuccarello, a familiar face here at Potawatomi, three-bet all in for 8,000 from the cutoff. The button and blinds all folded before Obst put in the chips to call.

Obst:
Zuccarello:

Zuccarello needed some help, and he got it on the flop. Neither the turn nor river helped Obst, and Zuccarello shipped the double.

Scott Obst – 50,000
Cero Zuccarello - 19,000

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