Grand Falls Casino

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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