For the second time this season, the MSPT traveled to Riverside Casino to host the Season 15 Iowa State Poker Championship, and the turnouts did not disappoint.
A total of 716 entries were tallied through the starting flights and generated a $693,020 prize pool.
On Sunday, 75 players returned for Day 2 action, and after roughly 12 hours of action it was local hero Phirom Peterschmidt who walked away on top to win the $141,978 first-place prize and his first MSPT title!
“I’m in disbelief”, Peterschmidt stated after his win, “We’ve talked about this all the time but actually doing it is just so crazy, this is amazing and just awesome.”
Peterschmidt, an Iowa native who calls Riverside his hometown casino, only had $24,136 in live tournament earnings before taking down the six-figure score and was fortunate to have a rail of support throughout the final table.
“Those are my boys”, Peterschmidt added after the victory, “I love them all and to have them here while taking this down at my hometown casino is just an amazing feeling”.
Day 2 Action
The final day came back with 75 players already in the money, so action kicked right into gear with Miroslav Semanisin’s pocket kings being set-up by Dave Kenniston’s pocket jacks in one of the first hands of the day.
Coolers across the room would continue with Jesse Green collecting an early double with pocket queens against Frank Lagodich’s pocket eights, and then he found another double after he flopped a set of aces against Phil Mader’s flopped set of kings.
Eliminations would continue like wildfire, and those to fall along the way, albeit with a payday were two-time MSPT champ Chris Meyers (45th Place - $2,612), Matt Porter (24th Place - $4,899), defending Riverside champ Jake Wilding (18th Place - $6,839), Nic DiTrapani (13th Place - $8,335), and Dennis Stevermer (11th Place - $10,304).
Final Table Action
Once the player took their seats, it took a while for the action to heat up until Spence Madole’s pocket aces were cracked on the river by MSPT champ Steve Federspiel’s pocket eights to become the first final table elimination.
After Madole’s departure, action slowed down for almost three full levels before a spree of eliminations occurred as MSPT champ Federspiel would be the first to fall after he lost a flip holding a made hand of fives against soon to be champ Peterschmidt’s king-queen off.
Directly after Federspiel made his way to the payout desk, two-time MSPT champ John Sun secured a huge double with a pair of cowboys against Trey Bartlett’s pocket eights.
Bartlett was then left the short stack at the table, and he got his remaining stack in once again with a pair of snowmen only to get tripped-up in seventh place by Peterschmidt.
After Bartlett’s elimination, DJ Aryasomayajula followed him to the payout desk in sixth place after he failed to hit live cards against Dustin Hoffmann.
The crazy flurry of eliminations continued after Jack Armstrong ran his made hand of tens into Sun’s superior pair of kings to make a fifth place exit for $35,946 while Justin Gish departed the very next hand in fourth place for $47,727.
With three players remaining, an ICM chop was discussed but ultimately declined and Hoffmann was next on the chopping block after he failed to connect with the runout as he left in third place for $64,360.
The heads-up match saw the chips pretty evenly dispersed and Sun tried once again to work out a deal, but the young buck Peterschmidt had a goal to win outright.
Once the duel officially began, Peterschmidt went on a relentless tear, winning majority of the hands to deny Sun his third MSPT title as he finished runner-up in second place for $86,499 while Peterschmidt became newest MSPT Iowa State Poker Champion!