Canterbury Park: April 15 - 24, 2016

 

Bigelow Leads 25 Day 1b Survivors; Lauson Eyes 2nd Season 7 Title

Created (4/24/2016 2:24:50 AM by Admin System)
 

 

Day 1b of the Mid-States Poker Tour Canterbury Park Main Event attracted 192 runners, which along with Day 1a's 184 entries brought the total prize pool up to $376,000, nearly double the advertised $200,000 guarantee. That will be distributed to the top 36 players – a min-cash is worth $2,288 – while the eventual winner will take home a $90,805 first-place prize.

After 14 levels of play, just 25 players remained with Pete Bigelow (pictured), who won a Heartland Poker Tour event back in 2009, and his stack of 353,500 leading the way. That is well ahead of World Series of Poker bracelet winner Adam Friedman, who bagged up the chip lead with 184,500 among the 33 survivors from Day 1a.

That said, Bigelow, who has $260,559 in lifetime earnings but has yet to notch his first MSPT cash, faced some still competition on Day 1b including MSPT Potawatomi champ Travis Lauson (283,500), MSPT regular Gennady Shimelfarb (239,000), former champ Dan "DQ" Hendrickson (201,500), and the father-son duo of Brett (128,500) and Josh Reichard (143,400).

Those players will join Friday night's survivors – players like defending champ Carl Carodenuto (162,000), two-time MSPT champ Johnny Hayes (135,500), and MSPT Pro Blake Bohn (109,000) – for Day 2 action at 11 a.m. on Sunday.

Of course not everyone was lucky enough to survive the night. Among those to fall on Day 1b were Poker Hall of Famer and Minnesota's all-time money winner Lyle Berman, reigning MSPT Player of the Year Mark Hodge, MSPT Running Aces champ Luke Arora, Minnesota Poker Hall of Famer Mike Schneider, and MSPT Pro Matt Alexander.

Cards will be in air promptly at 11 a.m. on Sunday. Be sure to join us then as we bring you all the latest and greatest on the way to crowning the latest MSPT champion.