$

Awarded to date

Potawatomi Hotel & Casino

November 15 - 18, 2018
Main Event: 748 Entrants
Winner: Brett Halan
recap_icon

EVENT RECAP

Over the weekend, the 2018 MSPT Wisconsin State Poker Championship attracted 748 entries to Potawatomi Hotel & Casino. That surpassed the 701 entries from the 2017 MSPT Wisconsin State Poker Championship to become the largest major poker tournament ($1K+ buy-in) in state history.

In the end it was 27-year-old Brett Halan, a logistics account manager from Naperville, Illinois, who finished as the last player standing for $144,812. It marked the third year in a row a player from Illinois walked away with the MSPT Wisconsin State Poker Championship title.

“It feels great, honestly it really does. The cards ran great, that’s all I could ask for,” Halan said after the win. “I usually play in the smaller tournaments, this was a big one. I tried to get it in good as best as I could. When I did it seemed to hold up every time.”

Halan, who said he plans to spend some of his winnings on family and friends, wasn’t about to rest on his win. In fact, he had to work just a few hours after capturing one of the Midwest’s most prestigious titles.

“I’ll be in at 5 a.m., I’m committed. It’s my job,” he said.

Prior to the win, Halan had a single MSPT cash of $1,204 for finishing 58th in the 2017 MSPT Potawatomi Hotel & Casino $350 Regional Event. His prior best score was a modest $4,413 for winning the 2015 WPTDeepStacks Chicagoland Event #16: $250 NLH.

Day 2 saw 114 players return to action, but with only 81 getting paid, 33 would leave empty handed including current MSPT Season 9 Player of the Year points leader Aaron Johnson, WSOP Colossus II champ Ben Keeline, WPT champ Keven Stammen, and bubble boy Michael Hudson.

Among those to finish in the money but fall short of making the final table were Rob Wazwaz (15th - $8,689), MSPT Hall of Famer Rich Alsup (16th - $7,241), Day 1C champ Ravi Raghavan (17th - $7,241), 10-time WSOPC ring winner Josh Reichard (20th - $6,082), 2015 MSPT Wisconsin State Poker Champ Ben Wiora (23rd - $5,141), Day 1A chip leader Joe McArthur (28th - $3,186), the red-hot Nick Pupillo (35th - $3,186), three-time MSPT champ Blake Bohn (44th - $2,679), and the start-of-the-day chip leader Byron Ziebell (73rd - $2,027).

At the final table, it took 42 hands for the first player to fall and happened when Josh Hergott – making his 2nd MSPT Main Event final table – moved all in with ace-five only to run it into the ace-queen of Josh Janis. He was followed out the door by Minnesota’s Sam “Sammy Whammy” De Silva, who lost a flip with jacks to Andre Haywood’s Big Slick suited. For De Silva, this was his 9th MSPT Main Event cash and 4th Final Table.

Joe Freeman then dispatched Joe Pusateri when ace-queen held against jack-ten suited, and Larry Wagner took his leave after he shoved ace-ten suited and failed to get there against Haywood’s two black kings.

Haywood then notched his third final table knockout after picking up ace-queen and holding against Janis’ ace-ten. Unfortunately for Haywood, his momentum came to a screeching halt and he was next to go after shoving queen-eight suited and getting called by Jeff Cvetezar’s pocket nines.

Ed Rohloff exited in fourth place when his ace-seven was outdrawn by Freeman’s ace-four all in preflop, and then the eventual champ finished off the final two players beginning with Cvetezar. It happened in a big pot where Halan turned straight and flush draws and called the shove of Cvetezar, who held pocket rockets. Halan spiked his flush on the river and Cvetezar, the last player from Wisconsin standing, had to settle for third place and $65,165 in prize money.

“I got lucky. I definitely didn’t think he has aces,” Halan said of the hand. “I thought I had a ton of outs. I had the spade outs and it just happened to hit.”

The heads-up match between Halan and Freeman was a back-and-forth affair with each holding the chip lead on more than one occasion. Eventually, Halan whittled down his opponent and claimed the title when Freeman bluffed all in on the flop. Halan called with flopped trips and Freeman was drawing dead.

result

The RESULTS

Rank
Player Name
City
State
Amount
Points
1
IL 
$144,812
1,800
2
IL 
$89,060
1,600
3
WI 
$65,165
1,500
4
WI 
$48,440
1,400
5
IL 
$36,927
1,300
6
WI 
$28,238
1,200
7
WI 
$21,722
1,100
8
IL 
$16,653
1,000
9
Austin 
MN 
$13,033
900
10
IL 
$10,788
800
11
MI 
$10,788
800
12
NH 
$10,788
800
13
WI 
$8,689
700
14
IL 
$8,689
700
15
MN 
$8,689
700
16
MN 
$7,241
600
17
IL 
$7,241
600
18
IL 
$7,241
600
19
IA 
$6,082
500
20
WI 
$6,082
500
21
Zion 
IL 
$6,082
500
22
MN 
$5,141
400
23
WI 
$5,141
400
24
OH 
$5,141
400
25
Baylis 
IL 
$4,200
300
26
WI 
$4,200
300
27
WI 
$4,200
300
28
IL 
$3,186
250
29
IL 
$3,186
250
30
WI 
$3,186
250
31
Estero 
FL 
$3,186
250
32
WI 
$3,186
250
33
WI 
$3,186
250
34
IL 
$3,186
250
35
NV 
$3,186
250
36
Tiffin 
IA 
$3,186
250
37
Carmel 
IN 
$2,679
200
38
IL 
$2,679
200
39
WI 
$2,679
200
40
IL 
$2,679
200
41
IL 
$2,679
200
42
MN 
$2,679
200
43
MN 
$2,679
200
44
MN 
$2,679
200
45
Lemont 
IL 
$2,679
200
46
IL 
$2,462
150
47
Verona 
WI 
$2,462
150
48
CO 
$2,462
150
49
WI 
$2,462
150
50
IL 
$2,462
150
51
IL 
$2,462
150
52
MN 
$2,462
150
53
IL 
$2,462
150
54
IN 
$2,462
150
55
WI 
$2,317
100
56
IL 
$2,317
100
57
MN 
$2,317
100
58
WI 
$2,317
100
59
Sumter 
SC 
$2,317
100
60
IL 
$2,317
100
61
WI 
$2,317
100
62
WI 
$2,317
100
63
Peru 
IL 
$2,317
100
64
MN 
$2,172
75
65
WI 
$2,172
75
66
MN 
$2,172
75
67
IL 
$2,172
75
68
MN 
$2,172
75
69
WI 
$2,172
75
70
WI 
$2,172
75
71
IL 
$2,172
75
72
WI 
$2,172
75
73
WI 
$2,027
50
74
IL 
$2,027
50
75
WI 
$2,027
50
76
WI 
$2,027
50
77
WI 
$2,027
50
78
KY 
$2,027
50
79
WI 
$2,027
50
80
MN 
$2,027
50
81
IL 
$2,027
50