For the second time this season, the MSPT returned to Hollywood Casino St. Louis and hosted its $1,110 Main Event and the turnouts did not disappoint.
A total of 734 entries were tallied and generated a $710,480 prize pool.
On Sunday, 87 players returned for Day 2 action, and after roughly 15 hours of play it was St. Louis native Jeff Sauer coming out on top to win the $142,396 top prize and his first MSPT title.
“Feels great,” Sauer said after his victory, “I got lucky in the middle of the tournament with nine-four of diamonds and was able to catch the right cards at the right time.”
Sauer finished by saying, “This was a tough final table with really good players, but I love playing poker and I had a great time here.”
Day 2 Action
With 81 slated to get paid, only six bodies needed to drop exit before players reached the money.
Among those to leave empty-handed were Matt Morfitt, Matt Holland, and Trent Wilson just to name a few.
Players continued to drop like wildfire, so fast that the hand-for-hand process occurred before the first level of play with Carlos Loving setting up Dor Elharari on the bubble and the march to the final table began.
Among those to fall along the way, albeit with a payday, were Wayne Nichelson (10th Place - $10,609), Maxx Holland (14th Place - $8,544), MSPT Hall of Famers Mark Hodge (17th Place - $7,120) & Rob WazWaz (33rd Place - $3,133), and MSPT champ Keith Heine (34th Place - $3,133).
Final Table Action
Once the player returned from their dinner break, George Harris collected an early double with pocket kings to catapult his short stack into the middle of the pack while Adam Tolander's top three stack dwindled to a ninth place finish, making him the first elimination at the final table.
After Tolander's departure, Paul Fehlig had some ups and downs until he was straightened out by Lance Brendel.
In the same level, Jovan Sudar picked his spot to move his chips on with an ace-ten only to have Tyler Dietz wake up with a superior ace-queen. Sudar was unable to pull ahead and departed in seventh place.
A few levels went by with chips shuffling across the table as double-ups were being handed out like candy on Halloween, that was until Brendel jammed his ace-six into Aaron Johnson's pocket kings, eliminating him in sixth place.
After Brendel was dropped, Travis Burch went on quite the rollercoaster ride only to end up taking a fifth place finish for $36,311.
Four-handed action saw Harris and Dietz tussle back-and-forth exchanging double-ups until Harris got his final chips in the middle with ace-nine suited and was called by Sauer holding king-eight off.
Sauer was able to take the lead after pairing his king on the flop and Harris was unable to pull ahead as he took a fourth-place finish for $47,631.
With three players remaining, Sauer started to catch steam and was able to drop the MSPT Hall of Famer Johnson in third place ($64,072), and sent Dietz home in second place ($87,574) after only one hand in the heads-up battle.
The Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) is making its way to East Chicago August 8th - 13th to host its inaugural $300K GTD $1,110 Main Event at the Ameristar Casino and the MSPT live reporting team will be on hand providing updates for the so make sure to come back!