Riverside Casino

For the first time this season, the MSPT traveled to Riverside Casino to host a five-event trophy series headlined by the $1,110 Main Event, and the turnouts did not disappoint.

A total of 624 entries were tallied (89 from Day 1a; 251 from 1b; 289 from 1c) were tallied through three starting flights and generated a $608,630 prize pool.

On Sunday, 67 players returned for Day 2 action, and after roughly 10 hours of action it was Matt Porter who battled his way through the tough final day field enroute to a career best $106,078 first-place prize and his first MSPT title!

“OH MY GOD, it feels so GREAT,” an ecstatic Porter said after claiming his first MSPT title. “I’ve worked so hard for this and have come close with some deep runs, but my hands just never held, they just couldn’t hold.. but they did in this tournament.”

Porter goes on to say, “I got kings in nearly back-to-back hands to double-up twice and knock a person out with three tables remaining, then picked-up aces for a massive triple-up with five players remaining and the rest was history.”

With a run of good hands finally holding for Porter, he was able to secure his first six-figure score which is a career best since he started playing live tournament poker just seven short years ago.

“I started playing tournament poker back in 2018,” the newly crowned champ stated, “I’ve won a couple of WSOP circuit rings with the biggest being about $30k, so this was by far my biggest score, but the win is more important.”

Porter continued, “Don’t get me wrong, the cash means a lot, $100k means a lot to a guy like me but a win is so hard to get, especially in such a tough field like this. There were so many good players in this field, every table I looked at had markings on the seat chart of people in the Hall of Fame and players with wins so to be able to get through this field, I couldn’t be more proud, highlight of my year.”

The incredibly tough Day 2 field which Porter was referring to included 19 former champs, eight of which are in the Hall of Fame, and five were former Player of the Years, but he was able to claim the top spot earning his first MSPT title!

MSPT Season 16 Riverside Final Table Results

*denotes heads-up deal

Day 2 Action

The final day came back with 67 players already in the money, and action kicked right into gear with MSPT Hall of Famer Aaron Johnson being the first elimination of the day while fellow Minnesotan Andy Hammell and two-rime MSPT champ Angela Jordison followed him to the payout desk in quick succession.

Tour favorite Andy Rogowski would be a part of the next batch of eliminations after he got involved in a pot with MSPT Hall of Famer Josh Reichard who ended up making a Royal Flush to send him home in 56^th place ($2,199).

The fast-paced action hit a new gear with players dropping like flies while other making moves to gain chips as two-time MSPT champ Dan Sun (52^nd Place - $2,321) back-to-back Player of the Year Umut Ozturk (50^th Place - $2,321), MSPT Hall of Famer & bracelet winner Rob WazWaz (40^th Place - $2,503), and fellow Hall of Famers Gerald Cunniff (31^st Place - $2,807) & Kou Vang (25^th Place - $3,660) all falling by the wayside.

While the stacked final day saw eight Hall of Famer’s in the field only two remained when Rich Alsup secured his 57^th Main Event cash (23^rd Place - $4,329) to become the first player to eclipse the $1,000,000 in MSPT Career Earnings.

Former champs would then continue to drop from the field as Mo Nuwwarah (17^th Place - $5,972), Ken Baime (16^th Place - $5,972), and the last Hall of Famer standing Keith Heine (10^th Place - $9,015) all fell before for the final table.

Final Table Action

Once the player took their seats, action picked right up with last year’s Riverside Main Event champ Jake Wilding losing a race to three-time MSPT champ Carl Carodenuto to become the first final table elimination.

A few hands later, last year’s third place finisher Dustin Hoffmann would get rivered by Ramon Ziadeh to fall to the bottom of the counts only to be finished off by Carodenuto shortly after to take an eighth place exit

While Varun Uppal came into the final table tied for third in chips with Hoffmann, he would end up following him to the payout desk after ace-ten suited into Porter’s superior suited ace-queen.

After Uppal’s elimination, Dave Grandin would lose a flip in the battle of the blinds against Mark Lafata to lose majority of his stack. Grandin would find a double shortly after, only to have Lafata finish the job in ^th enest level eliminating him in sixth place.

With five players remaining, a shift in the table balance happened when soon to be champ Porter raised with a pair of aces only to have Carodenuto and Lafata go all-in with each of them holding Big Slick. The cooler situation saw Porter collect a triple-up to soar to the top of the chip counts.

With Porter was collecting chips, Minnesota’s Jeff Petronack was looking to make a move of his own with a suited ace only to run into Ziadeh’s pair of ladies to take a fifth place exit for $32,143.

Once Petronack hit the deck, Lafata found his hand to roll with only to end up losing a race to Carodenuto to be dispatched in fourth place for $42,490.

The chips were then pretty evenly dispersed between the three remaining players until Porter and Carodenuto got into a massive clash in a battle of the blinds.

All the chips went into the middle on the turn with Porter holding straight and flush draws to Carodenuto’s trip kings. Luckily for Porter, he completed Broadway on the river to send the three-time champ home in third place for $57,097

Once there was two remaining, a heads-up deal was discussed and agreed upon which saw Ziadeh take a second place finish for $100,000 while Porter went home with a career best $106,078 to become the reigning MSPT Riverside Main Event Champion!

This wraps up our coverage of yet another exciting trip to Riverside but Season 16 of the MSPT continues as we head to north to Running Aces in Skol Country for the Minnesota Poker State Championship (April 3^rd -13^th) and our reporting team will be on hand providing updates for the $500K GTD $1,110 Main Event so make sure to come back!