JACK Cleveland Casino

It looked like tonight was going to go out with a whimper but explosions at two of the remaining three tables turned the evening upside down giving Blake Napierala a massive chip lead in Day 1B of the MSPT $300,000 Guaranteed Main Event at Jack Cleveland Casino.

Napierala pulled off a huge elimination to shoot his chip stack all the way up to 469,500 chips to bag the top stack of the night taking over the overall chip lead for the tournament. Lynn Rainey took the slow and steady route to second place for the day winding up with 291,500. Justin Mihalek was third with 284,500 followed by Jospeh Elhade with 282,000 and former MSPT JACK Cleveland Casino champion Abdul Amer rounded out the top five with 249,000. Two other past MSPT event champions also made it through to Day 2 as Daniel Bekavac (149,500) and Chris Meyers (77,000) punched their tickets to Sunday along with Pat Steele (158,000) and Spencer Wright (122,000).

A few notables failed to escape the Day 1A field including three-time WSOP bracelet winner Adam Friedman, DJ MacKinnon, former MSPT event winner Benjamin Wiora and Thomas Gliva.

For the Day 1B flight, 207 entries were recorded and 26 players were able to put away chips. Combined with Day 1A, the tournament is up to 326 entries and 40 players have advanced to Day 2 so far. The tournament has also already reached its $300,000 guarantee setting up what should be an outstanding prize pool for the event. The final starting flight for the Main Event is Saturday starting at 12 PM EST. Everyone who makes Day 2 will return on Sunday at 11 AM to play for the MSPT $300,000 Guaranteed Main Event at Jack Cleveland Casino.

Congratulations to everyone who advanced to Day 2. We will be back tomorrow at 12 PM EST for coverage of Day 1C of the Mid-States Poker Tour here on MSPTPoker.com from Cleveland, Ohio!

As Day 1B is winding down, Steve Wilson got his last 8 big blinds (32,000) in with , but ran into the of Darko Bobas.

Bobas held on a board .of bringing us down to 27 players.

Dan Bekavac opens from the cutoff to 10,500 and Matthew Tahsin calls from the big blind.

Flop . Tahsin checks and Bekavac puts him all-in, which Tahsin accepts and makes the call for his remaining 59,000. Bekavac holds but Tahsin flopped two pair with .

The board runs out in Tahsin’s favor and he gets the full double.

Tahsin 160,000 (53 bb).

Why is Daniel Bekavac putting his arm around Pat Steele?

Well, maybe because after Bekavac registered during Level 11 he’s managed to pick up a few chips.

On a board, Bekavac bet out 20,000 chips and was called by John Franciosi. The came on the river and both players ended up with their chips in the middle with Franciosi’s tournament on the line. Bekavac dropped for a full house and Franciosi was throwing down at the same time but then let the cards fall to the table and walked away after he saw he’d lost the hand. Bekavac moved up to a stunning 225,500 chips and the two former MSPT event champions exchanged pleasantries as the chips went to Bekavac.

30 players remain as we close in on the end of Day 1B.

Season 10 of the MSPT has included two Regional Series at Tropicana Evansville in southern Indiana back in early February and May, now we’re headed there again from August 23-25. However, this time it’ll be for the $1,100 buy-in, $200,000 GTD 2019 MSPT Indiana State Poker Championship.

For nearly 22 years, Tropicana Evansville operated as Indiana’s first riverboat casino, and now they’ve become the first to transition to a land-based casino with their new 75,000 square-foot facility.

The 2019 MSPT Indiana State Poker Championship will kick off with Day 1A at 3 p.m. on Friday, August 23 with the plan of playing 15 levels. Day 1B will then take place at the same time on Saturday, August 24. Players who advance from Main Event Flight 1A to Day 2 are not eligible to play in Flight 1B without forfeiting their chips. The remaining players from each flight will combine on Sunday, August 25 at 11:00 a.m. and play until a champion is crowned. The complete schedule can be found on msptpoker.com.

The final table will be broadcast LIVE (15-minute delay) worldwide on msptpoker.com using RFID technology allowing all viewers to see the hole cards. In addition, the entire Main Event will be live reported in the MSPT live blog.

It’ll mark the sixth time a Main Event has been held at Tropicana Evansville, the second in the new land-based facility. The 2018 MSPT Indiana State Poker Championship attracted 307 entries to Tropicana Evansville, which sits on the Ohio River just across the border from Kentucky. After a full weekend of play, Tim Burden of Central City, Kentucky walked away with the title and $68,149 top prize, his first ever MSPT cash.

In August 2017, the 2017 MSPT Indiana State Poker Championship drew 320 entries and saw Satish Thakur claim the title and $71,047 top prize.

In 2016, Earl Potter bested a 340-entry field to win the 2016 MSPT Indiana State Poker Championship for $82,450. Other winners of the MSPT Tropicana Evansville include Michael O’Neill (August 2015 for $67,746) and Charlie Dawson (August 2014 for $60,527).

Tropicana Evansville is a multi-million-dollar entertainment complex located on the scenic banks of the Ohio River in southwestern Indiana. The single-level 24-hour casino, which opened on October 20, 2017, encompasses 45,000 square feet of gaming space featuring 1,175 slot games, 33 table games, a dedicated Poker Room and a High Limit Room.

Accommodations include a 243-room hotel tower and a 95-room boutique hotel. The property showcases an ultramodern entertainment lounge, five dining options, five bars, gift shop, conference center, riverfront pavilion and a 1,660-vehicle attached parking garage.

For more information, visit tropevansville.com. Stay tuned to msptpoker.com for upcoming hotel rates.

UTG+1 opens to 6,500 and is called by the Hijack. Then Kurt Boutelle re-raised to 21,500. Action gets to Nicholas Luban in the big blind who shoves all-in for 49,000. The action is folded to Boutelle who makes the call.

Luban holds and Boutelle has .

The flop helps Luban as its but the turn gave Boutelle the knockout as a meaningless fell on the river.

Boutelle: 240,000 (96 bb)

Agostino Ragozzino just did it the hard way and the easy way.

First, he just won a hand against three other players grinding them out one at a time on each street eventually turning it into a 70,000 chip pot. Then he pulled off an quick elimination of a short stack on the next hand putting his stack up to final total of 170,000 chips (68 bb) by the time it was all said and done putting him up among the chip leaders.

37 players remain as we whittled down the field here in Day 1B.

Registration is now closed for Day 1B of the MSPT $300,000 Guaranteed Main Event at Jack Cleveland Casino. 207 entries were recorded in the flight and with the 119 entries from Day 1A, the total entries for the tournament are now up to 326 already surpassing the $300,000 guarantee.

14 players advance from yesterday’s flight and 40 players are still alive hoping to join them as we head into the final three levels of play this evening. Best of luck to all of our remaining players this evening!

It’s time for the final break of the day as we get ready for the close of registration for the flight. We have 206 entries posted right now and we’ll see where the final total ends up when play resumes in ten minutes.