Day 1A of the MSPT Season 9 finale at Canterbury Park drew 199 runners but after 15 levels of play, just 26 remained with Brad Berman (pictured) and his stack of 294,000 leading the way.
Others to bag big stacks were Thao “Scratch” Thiem (285,000), Nathan Lohmer (256,000), former MSPT Mark Sandness (236,500), and 2016 MN Poker Mag POY Saad Ghanem (236,000), who round out the top five.
They were joined by Phil Mader (210,500), Brian Altman (207,500), Umut Ozturk (158,500), Ian Matakis (139,000), three-time MSPT champ Carl Carodenuto (71,500), and MSPT champ Jason Seitz (53,500).
One of the big stories on Day 1A was the start of the $30,000 Platinum Pass Giveaway, which will see one lucky winner win their way to next month’s PokerStars Players NL Hold’Em Championship (PSPC) in the Bahamas!
Three names were drawn at random to determine who will return for Sunday’s eight-player heads-up Flipout Tournament and they were Jolene Jensen, MSPT Season 6 Canterbury Park champ Dan “DQ” Hendrickson, and Sandness!
Jolene Jensen, Dan “DQ” Hendrickson & Mark Sandness
Among those to try and fall were three-time MSPT champ Blake Bohn, former MSPT Canterbury Park winners Jon Kim and Rob Wazwaz, Season 8 finale winner Ben Marsh, radio personality Cory Cove, WSOP bracelet winner Ben Keeline, WPT champ Kevin Eyster, MSPT Season 7 Player of the Year Rich Alsup, and Matt Kirby, who needs a cash to continue is streak as of one of four players to cash every season of the MSPT alive.
Days 1B and 1C will get underway at 3 p.m. local time on Friday and Saturday respectively. Between the two five more players will advance in the Platinum Pass Giveaway, so be sure to check back then as we bring you all the action straight from the tournament floor of Canterbury Park!