Canterbury Park

Day 1B of the latest MSPT $1,100 Main Event at Canterbury Park drew 267 entries, which along with 1A’s 259 brought the total field up to 526 runners. That not only made it the largest MSPT ever held at the venue in 16 stops, but also became the largest major poker tournament ($1K+ buy-in) in Minnesota history.

The top 54 players will get paid a minimum of $2,289 while the eventual winner will walk away with a $109,375 first-place prize.

The man best positioned to make a run at it, at least from the 1B flight, is Eric Hehr, who bagged the lead among the 53 survivors with 262,000. That is behind Day 1A chip leader Carl Carodenuto, a three-time MSPT champ who advanced Friday night with 299,000.

Others to bag big stacks on 1B were Curtis Anderson (245,500), Cody Espeseth (226,500), and last April’s MSPT Canterbury Park champ Mark Wadekamper (212,000).

Others advancing were Colorado’s Sammy Aweida (155,500), two-time champ Blake Bohn (135,500), MSPT Season 2 Northern Lights champ Tom Stambaugh (126,500), MSPT Season 6 Canterbury Park champ Dan “DQ” Hendrickson (118,500), 2016 MN Poker Mag POY Saad Ghanem (82,000), and two-time champ Jeremy Dresch (73,000).

Not everyone was fortunate enough to find a bag. The UCCS Mountain Lion Poker Club, who traveled from Colorado, had four players in action but Alastair “alastaira” Armstrong, Austin “128beems” Thibaudeau, and Bill “chillbill5” Pandolph all hit the rail. That left Justin Cole (76,500) as the only one to make it to Day 2.

Likewise, Ahmed Taleb (MSPT Season 8 Grand Falls), David Gonia (MSPT Season 4 Running Aces), Joe Matheson (MSPT Season 1 Running Aces), Paul Cross (MSPT Season 8 Canterbury Park Regional), and Max Young (MSPT Season 9 Golden Gates) were among the former MSPT champs to fall. Three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Dutch Boyd, MSPT Season 7 Player of the Year Rich Alsup, and WPTDeepStacks champ Jeff Fielder were also among the 1B casualties.

Cards will be in the air at 11 a.m. on Sunday and the returning 94 players (41 from 1A, 53 1B) players will battle down to a winner. We’ll capture all the action here in the blog, and the final table action will be live streamed when 10 players remain. Be sure to join us Sunday as we bring you all the action and eliminations straight from the floor of Canterbury Park!

The tournament staff just announced the remaining players will play three 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.

David Rutledge opened for 6,000 from middle position and was met by an all-in three-bet for 16,900 from Kosta Sengos in the small blind. Rutledge called and it was off to the races.

Sengos:
Rutledge:

Sengos needed to improve to stay alive and he managed to do it on the flop. The turn was safe for Sengos and he shipped the double after the was run out on the river.

Kosta Sengos - 35,000 (15 bb)
David Rutledge - 20,000 (8 bb)

A short-stacked Tyler Caspers moved all in for his last 6,000 or so from the cutoff and Cody Espeseth isolated with a raise out of the small blind.

Espeseth:
Caspers:

Caspers had the inferior ace and things got worse when the flop gave Espeseth two pair. The turn gave Caspers a wheel draw but it didn’t come in as the blanked on the river.

Cody Espeseth - 180,000 (75 bb)
Tyler Caspers - Busted

With roughly 30,000 in the pot and a flop of , Craig McClellan jammed his last 28,000 and two other players before action was on Dan Favreau, who called.

Favreau:
McClellan:

McClellan had the aces but Favreau was drawing to an open-ended straight draw. The turn gave Favreau a couple more outs, and the river gave him a straight.

With that, Favreau cracked aces to send McClellan to the rail.

“You played really well today,” two-time MSPT champ Blake Bohn offered McClellan before he headed for the exit.

Dan Favreau - 115,000 (
Craig McClellan - Busted

Chip Leader Coaching (CLC), founded in 2016 by WSOP bracelet winners Chance Kornuth and John “KasinoKrime” Beauprez, is a training program geared toward multi-table tournaments (MTTs). The business model is unique in that students don’t pay unless they make money.

CLC has grown to include six coaches including Nick Petrangelo, 2015 WSOP Main Event champ Joe McKeehen, Ryan Leng, Ryan Jones, and Ryan Laplante who oversee more than 40 students. MSPT champ and WSOP bracelet winner Nick Jivkov is also involved in the business side of CLC.

The only way to gauge whether or not a training course works is by results, and in case you haven’t noticed, the CLC team has been putting up some big ones. In February alone, the CLC Squad notched more than $1.4 million in tournament earnings. Amazingly, they combined for $1.45 million in March!

“Our coaches are really mentors who are personally vested in their student’s progression as a player and are willing to connect them with the resources and guidance that drives consistent, long-lasting success in tournament poker,” Beauprez said in an interview with our media partner CardsChat. “Our philosophy is simple. We’re held accountable for the quality of our coaching because instead of asking for a monthly subscription, we take a small percentage of winnings.”

For more information visit CLCpoker.com

Everett Carlton raised to 4,500 from UTG+1, and was called by Bridgette Field in the lojack and Drew Schulz in the small blind.

Schulz and Carlton checked a flop to Field, who fired 9,000. Schulz called and Field folded.

The turn and river were quickly checked by both players, and Schulz tabled , leading Field to muck.

Drew Schulz - 60,000 (30 bb)
Bridgette Field - 31,400 (16 bb)

Action folded to Ryan Remington and he moved all in for 18,700. He’d soon claim it was after looking at one card. Derek Palmer called him from the big blind and the hands were turned up.

Remington:
Palmer:

Remington was pleasantly surprised his second card was another ace, and the pocket rockets held after the board ran out a clean .

Ryan Remington - 40,000 (20 bb)
Derek Palmer- 105,000 (53 bb)