Grand Falls Casino

Ben Frye Bags Heaps As 24 Players Advance After Day 1A

The first day of the Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) Grand Falls $1,110 Main Event drew 212 entries to kick things off and already surpassed the tournament's $200,000 guaranteed prize pool with one flight still to go.

Plenty of big names made their way to Grand Falls Casino, creating a star-studded field with a room full of MSPT champs and Hall of Famers.

With chips flying and players dropping, play slowed down after the final break, and a full 15 levels were played until completion.

Once players put their chips into the bags, it was Ben Frye leading the pack with an impressive 860,000. Frye started the final two levels just above the chip average before catching some steam at the end of the night while others falling out of contention as he continued to add to his stack until play concluded for the night.

Kitkat Klassen was able to find the second spot on the leaderboard, also due to a late-night heater. After starting the final level with a below average chip stack, Klassen was able to get hot at the right time and spun-up a 705,000 stack in the final three hands of the evening.

MSPT Hall of Famer Rob WazWaz came into the day holding the top spot for Season 14 Player of the Year and also experienced a surge at the end of the night to bag a third-place stack of 688,000, positioning himself yet again in spot to make another deep run.

After being seen at the top of the counts for majority of the day, Reg Powell was able to put 483,000 on his slip to end the night while MSPT champ Max Havlish (394,000) rounded out the top five stacks.

Others that advanced included Graham Beynon (282,000), Two-time Grand Falls Regional champ Eric Atchison (266,000), Miles Barnum (235,000) Terence Reid (185,000), MSPT Hall of Famer Mark Hodge (97,000), and MSPT champ Jon Kim (53,000).

All who did not bag will have one more flight to try and do so, with that being held tomorrow Saturday, August 19th at 3 p.m. local time.

As usual, the live reporting team will be back at it then, so be sure to come back and see who else adds their name to Sunday's Day 2 roster.

MSPT Grand Falls Remaining Schedule

End Day 1A Chip Counts

Player Name	Chip Count	Previous	Progress
Benjamin Frye	860,000	867,000
Yi (KitKat) Klassen	705,000	127,000
Rob WazWaz	688,000	490,000
Reg Powell	483,000	303,000
Max Havlish	394,000	445,000
Graham Beynon	282,000	325,000
Curtis Vierstraete	282,000	282,000
Nicholas-George Koto	275,000	275,000
Eric Atchison	266,000	280,000
Kipp Smith	263,000	263,000
John Cap	247,000	310,000
Miles Barnum	235,000	170,000
Eric Oldenkamp	191,000	191,000
Terence Reid	185,000	159,000
Tyree Johnson	165,000	130,000
Gary Brakke	160,000	160,000
Wayne Nicholsen	150,000	120,000
Dennis Stevermer	114,000	62,500
Matthew Dahl	111,000	85,000
Eric Grave	101,000	101,000
Mark Hodge	97,000	165,000
Jonathan Kim (MN)	53,000	103,000
Mark Larson (MN)	31,000	65,000
Jason Robertson	22,000	22,000

Final Three Hands

The tournament director has just announced the final three hands of the evening.

Johnson Sets Up Dahl for Double Up

Matt Dahl opened under the gun for 14,000 and then called Ty Johnson’s 75,000 three-bet jam from middle position.

Ty Johnson:
Matt Dahl:

Johnson was racing for his tournament life and kept the lead after the flop gave him a set of jacks while Dahl picked-up a Broadway draw.

Luckily for Johnson, neither the turn nor the river completed Broadway for Dahl and he collected his double-up.

Ty Johnson - 140,000
Matt Dahl - 60,000

Nicholsen Secures Late Night Double

Wayne Nicholsen was all in preflop for 59,000 and was called by Eric Atchison.

Wayne Nicholsen:
Eric Atchison:

Nicholsen was ahead holding a made hand of queens and kept the lead as the runout secured his double-up.

Eric Atchison - 270,000
Wayne Nicholsen - 120,000

WazWaz Wins Race to Drop Williams

Rob WazWaz raised from middle and was called by Reg Powell before Terry Williams squeezed from the big blind.

Action was back on WazWaz who went over the top giving Williams isolation after Powell folded.

Terry Williams:
Rob WazWaz:

Williams was behind holding two over cards but wasn’t able to pair either on the runout and he made his exit from the tournament field.

Rob WazWaz - 490,000
Reg Powell - 400,000
Terry Williams - 0

Powell Continues to Collect

Reg Powell raised to 12,000 from middle position and then called the big blinds 67,000 three-bet jam.

Opponent:
Reg Powell:

Powell was ahead and liked the flop that gave him top pair.

The turn was an even better sight for Powell as it left his opponent drawing dead to the river.

Reg Powell - 400,000

Cap Scoops Three Way Pot

Kitkat Klassen raised from middle position and was called by Michael Estes from the small blind, along with John Cap from the big blind.

The flop came and action was checked to Cap who fired out an uncontested 13,000 to win the pot.

John Cap - 310,000
Kitkat Klassen - 131,000
Michael Estes - 74,000

Round of Chip Counts

Player Name	Chip Count	Previous	Progress
Max Havlish	445,000	268,000
Eric Atchison	424,000	461,000
Rob WazWaz	340,000	170,000
Matthew Dahl	330,000	285,000
John Cap	310,000	146,500
Reg Powell	303,000	300,000
Wayne Nicholsen	177,000	343,000
Miles Barnum	170,000	130,000
Mark Hodge	165,000	230,000
Terence Reid	159,000	70,000
Tyree Johnson	130,000	105,000
Yi (KitKat) Klassen	127,000	72,500
Anthony Scarborough	80,000	73,500
Mark Larson (MN)	65,000	55,000
Michael Estes	65,000	82,000
Terry Williams	63,000	68,500

Bohn Jams into Hodge's Aces

MSPT Hall of Famer Blake Bohn was all in after a flop from middle position and was called by fellow MSPT Hall of Famer Mark Hodge from the hijack.

Blake Bohn:
Mark Hodge:

Hodge was ahead holding the best made hand and the turn gave him top set to leave Bohn drawing dead to the river.

Mark Hodge - 235,000
Blake Bohn - 0