For the second time this season, the MSPT traveled to Riverside Casino to host the Season 16 Iowa Poker State Championship, and the turnout did not disappoint.
A total of 815 entries were tallied to generate a $789,494 prize pool.
On Sunday, 91 players returned for Day 2 action, and after roughly 12 hours of action, it was business owner/ tour grinder Mike Estes who battled his way through the challenging final day field en route to a career-best $153,551 first-place prize and his first MSPT title!
“Phenomenal, best I’ve felt in eight years”, Estes said after being asked how it feels closing out his first MSPT title.
“How does that spade come! Best spade I’ve ever seen in my life”, an ecstatic Estes added with overwhelming emotions.
“The best part about this win was seeing Jess (Anderson) cry”, Estes said.
“I started playing poker back in 2012 in Tama, Iowa, and she’s been here with me at every stop since”, Estes continued, “I literally played for eight years (until 2020) without ever cashing a single tournament, and she was at every one of them. So during COVID, I really started diving into what I was doing wrong and how I could improve”.
After going to the drawing boards, Estes made his way back to the felt, making his first appearance on the tour in 2021, and notched his first career cash here at Riverside in Season 12.
Estes, since then, has racked up 23 Main Event cashes while making seven final table appearances, and now has secured his first MSPT title, bringing his career MSPT earnings to $431,217.
Day 2 Action
The final day came back with 91 players already in the money, and action kicked right into gear with Zac Campbell being the first elimination of the day while Jay Goughnour and two-time MSPT champ Ken Baime followed him to the payout desk as part of the first batch of eliminations.
Riverside Season 14 third-place finisher Benjamin Frye would be a part of the next batch of eliminations, along with MSPT champ Bee Yang and Season 12 Riverside champ Timothy Gundrum.
At the same time, back-to-back Player of the Year Umut Ozturk and fellow MSPT Hall of Famer Aaron Johnson fell in succession to each other in 60th and 61st place, respectively, with Ozturk adding 150 POY points to jump into the top spot in the ICON standings.
The fast-paced action then hit a new gear, with players dropping like flies while other making moves to gain chips as two-time MSPT champ Dan Sun (54th Place - $2,520) MSPT Hall of Famer & bracelet winner Rich Alsup (53rd Place - $2,520), fellow bracelet winner TJ Murphy (47th Place - $2,520), MSPT champ Anthony Scarborough (35th Place - $3,465), and last year’s Riverside champ Jake Wilding (27th Place - $4,567) all falling by the wayside.
Former champs would then continue to drop from the field as two-time champs Tim Thorp (22nd Place - $5,591) & Taylor Howard (19th Place - $6,615), Mark Larson (15th Place - $9,449), and the MSPT’s top casher DJ Buckley (10th place - $11,024) all fell before the final table.
Final Table Action
Once the player took their seats, action picked right up with three-time MSPT champ Nick Barksdale losing half his stack to WSOP bracelet winner Chad Holloway, only to lose the other half to Michael Kreutzer to become the first final table elimination.
A few hands later, MSPT Hall of Famer & bracelet winner Rob WazWaz would have the same fate as Barksdale, as he lost most of his stack with pocket tens against aces, and then turned a straight against soon-to-be champ Estes only to have him river a full house to end his run in eighth place.
The final table appearance marked WazWaz’s 21st on the tour, padding his GOAT rankings while taking his career MSPT earnings to $789,962.
Justin Coliny came into the final table in the middle os the pack and was able to find a double-up before losing a race to Holloway to take a seventh-place finish.
After Coliny’s elimination, short-stack Jeff Kenny would lose against Kreutzer to take a sixth-place finish, while Steven Dill followed him out the door in fifth place for $39,372.
With four players remaining, the chips started shuffling around the table before Kreutzer lost a few crucial hands, only to be set-up in fourth place for $51,971 by Jake Long.
The chips were then pretty evenly dispersed between the three remaining players, as each started dishing out and catching doubles until Lonmg was able to hit running hearts to eliminate Holloway in third place for $69,610.,
Once the heads-up battle started, Long held a slight chip lead over Estes until all the chips went into the middle with Estes holding an ace-five against Long’s pair of nines.
Long was able to hold the lead after the flop and even turned a set, only to have Estes river a four-card flush to take a massive chip lead, which led to Long’s eventual departure in second-place for $94,499 while Estes secured the MSPT Season 16 Iowa Poker State Chmapionship for his first career title and score of $153,551.
This wraps up our coverage for this year’s Iowa Poker State Championship, but Season 16 of the MSPT continues this week as we head to Bally’s Black Hawk next (July 31st - Auguist 3rd) and our reporting team will be on hand providing updates for the Colorado Poker State Championship, so make sure to come back and tune in!