For the second time this season, the MSPT traveled to Iowa's Grand Falls Casino, for their $1,110 Main Event.
A solid turnout of 414 entries were recorded over two days with 44 players finding their way into Sundays Day 2 with their eyes set on the title.
The final day saw 10 former champs return to the felt after roughly nine hours of play, it was Minnesota’s Dave Gonia who was the one to navigate his way to his second career title along with a payday good for $88,073.
“It feels good”, Gonia said after his win, “It’s been 11 years since my last win, so it’s nice to get another one under the belt.”
The victory not only notched Gonia his second MSPT title, but also marked his 14th Main Event MSPT cash which brought his career total to $413,054!
Day 2 Action
The final day came back with 44 players already in the money, so action kicked right into gear with MSPT champ Erv Bjerga losing a big race to Loki Abboud in the first hand of the day.
Following Bjerga to the payout desk was fellow MSPT champ Gerald Cunniff after his flopped trip sevens had a kicker problem to Hall of Famer Rob WazWaz.
Fellow Hall of Famer Rich Alsup also had his Day 2 come up short of claiming a second title after his flush draw bricked the turn and river, making a 33rd exit for $2,450.
The fast-paced action kept rolling, and players like start of day chip leader Mo Nuwwarah (28th Place - $2,450), MSPT Hall of Famer DQ Dan Hendrickson (21st Place - $3,811), MSPT champ Jason Sell (15th Place - $5,251), Tom Hammers (12th - Place $6,541), and MSPT champ Sean Hinton (11th Place - $6,451) all fell by the wayside setting up the stacked final table.
Final Table Action
The final table saw three former champs looking for their second piece of hardware with WazWaz holding the chip lead over his final eight opponents while Kevin McMahon entered the final table well in the middle of the pack holding an average stack, but after had an unfortunate turn of events after his pocket aces were set-up by Tyler Klumb’s pair of fours to become the first final table elimination.
The very next level saw some ICM failure after Warren Madison’s second-place chips hit the rail for an eighth place finish while MSPT champ Justin Lynch was able to get a few pay jumps before losing a flip to Ron Bay to be eliminated in seventh place.
With one former champ down, there were two remaining, and Hall of Famer WazWaz found himself at the bottom of the counts trying to make a move with king-queen off only to have Bay roll over a pair of eights.
While the temperatures may have cooled down for the week it's still summertime outside, but WazWaz was unable to melt Bay’s snowmen as he took a sixth place exit for $16,853.
The final table appearance extended WazWaz’s record to 19 on the tour, while also pushing him further away in the GOAT rankings as he was able to sneak up to the second place spot in the 2024 ICON rankings as he's just 100 points behind fellow Hall of Famer Josh Reichard.
Alex Wheeler came into the final table with the least amount of chips but was able to maneuver his way up the payday ladder by besting his seventh place finish from earlier this season after being outkicked by Jalen Heald to take home a fifth place finish for $22,054
Shortly after Wheeler’s departure, Klumb’s rollercoaster of a day came to an end after his ace-five failed to beat Heald’s king-six suited, as he walked to the payout desk in fourth place for $29,256.
Three-handed action saw Gonia hold slight lead, but chips shuffled around for a few levels which saw each player sit atop of the counts at one point until Bay lost two all-ins to Gonia, which led to him taking third place exit for $39,658.
After Bay’s elimination, Gonia held a 2:1 chip advantage over Heald and it didn’t take much time for him to secure his second career MSPT title while Held took a runner-up finish for $54,461.
The MSPT will be making its way to JACK Cleveland Casino from August 13th - 18th to host another trophy series, and MSPT team will be on hand providing updates for the $500K GTD $1,110 Main Event so make sure to come back!