Ameristar East Chicago

The MSPT traveled to Ameristar East Chicago for the first time this season to host a 13-trophy event series which was headlined by the $1,110 buy-in, $300K GTD Main Event.

The headliner saw a total of 619 entries (61 from Day 1a; 101 from 1b; 220 from 1c; 237 from 1d) tallied and generated a $598,830 prize pool.

On Sunday, 71 players returned for Day 2 action, and after the dust settled, it was Harrison Genson who rose to the top securing his first MSPT title, along with his best career live score of $105,000!

The victory marked only Genson’s second cash on the tour, with his first coming earlier in the year during the record-breaking Potawatomi event, but his deep run was cut short of making a final table appearance.

”After coming in 10^th place at Potawatomi earlier in the year I just felt like I needed to make a final table,"

Genson continued to add, “I’ve been playing poker for a while now, and haven’t made a single final table playing live tournaments so to be able to win the first one I’ve ever made, words can’t describe it.”

The ecstatic Genson lite up after his victory, and paid tribute to his Jaka Coaching for helping him make another deep run.

“I started working with Jaka Coaching about seven years ago”, Genson stated, “He really helped me improve the leaks in my game which has really helped me in the long run”.

“The site offers great content every single month and the coaching is fantastic”, Genson added, “I think he’s a great, great teacher whose really helped me along the way and you can see in my results in the last four-five years I have three six-figure scores”.

MSPT Season 16 Ameristar East Chicago Final Table Results

Day 2 Action

The final day came back with all 71 players already in the money with action kicking right into gear with MSPT Hall of Famer Josh Reichard starting off the day with a double in one of the first hands, only to fall the very next hand in 70^th Place for $2,209 while DJ Buckley (66^th Place - $2,209), Imran Sajwani (65^th Place - $2,209), and defending champ Tim Thorp (64^th Place - $2,209) following him to the payout desk.

Players continued to make their way to the payout line with ​​​​​​ Season 16 POY points leader Anthony Scarborough adding to his lead after his exit (49^th Place - $2,325), MSPT Hall of Famer Rob WazWaz (44thPlace - $2,499), Andrew Keeney (33^rd Place - $2,790), MSPT champ Jeff Copeland (24^th Place - $4,243), and fellow champ Matt Porter (10^th Place - $8,719) all exited in succession to set the stage for the final table.

Final Table Action

Once players took their seats, a full orbit was needed before the short stack Brad Sailor moved all in with a pair of fours and was called by Dejan Petrovic holding Big Slick.

Sailor’s made hand of fours held strong until the turn, which saw Petrovic take the lead to make him the first final table elimination.

Petrovic would then follow with the elimination of Eric Phillips, setting-up his aces with a pair of sixes only to be coolered the very next hand in a set-over-set against soon to be champ Genson to take a seventh-place exit.

After a full level of double-ups, the two top stacks ended-up clashing which saw Genson turn two-pair to send MSPT champ Jason Mendoza to the rail in sixth place for $23,251.

It was another incredible run by the former champ who has now notched his third final table appearance in as his only three MSPT cashes.

Once Mendoza hit the rail, MSPT newcomer Garry Gurevich sat at the bottom of the chip counts and found a pair of fours to get his remaining stack in the middle with, only to have Genson river two-pair with a nine-three suited, ending his run in fifth place for $30,807.

With four players remaining, Genson held over half of the chips in play and added to his dominate stack after he dropped Daniel Hughes in fourth place for $40,689.

From that point, the final three players agreed upon a deal which saw Brett “Pops” Reichard take a third place finish and David Hoffman a runner-up placement, both for $73,342 while Genson took home the title along with his first live six-figure score.

This wraps up our coverage of another eventful tournament, so make sure you join us when we make our way back to Venetian Las Vegas for our first ever MAJOR $1,600 Heart Poker Championship June 4^th - 8^th, followed by the $1,100 Main Event June 8^th - 12^th, with both tournaments boasting at least $1,000,000 prize pools and as always, full coverage being provided by the MSPT reporting team along with streamed final tables distributed by PokerGO!