FireKeepers Casino

Largest Midwest Stop in MSPT History Sees Saad Lead 73 Day 1c Survivors

Thanks to three record-breaking starting flights, the latest stop at FireKeepers Casino established itself as the largest Main Event in Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) history outside of Las Vegas.

The 165 entries from Day 1a (a record opening starting flight for the property) and 310 from Dab 1b (the biggest single starting flight outside of the Vegas stop) combined with Day 1c's 345 runners to create a combined field of 820 entries, which surpassed last spring's 614 entries to set a new record for largest poker major in Michigan.

The $820,000 total prize pool will be distributed to the top 81 players with a min-cash being worth $2,064 and the eventual winner taking home $174,658. Making things even sweeter is the fact that whoever finishes runner-up will still take home six figures -- $106,383 to be exact.

After 14 levels of play on Saturday night, just 73 players survived the Day 1c flight with Nevada Saad (pictured above) of Dearborn Heights and his stack of 262,500 . That is good enough for the overall chip lead, ahead of both Day 1a and 1b chip leaders Isaac Kratchman and Jonathan Dimatteo, who bagged 191,000 and 249,500 respectively.

Saad, a cash game player with no documented tournament cashes to his name, got extremely lucky in the penultimate level of the night when he got his stack of 98,300 all in preflop holding Big Slick against Brian Riemersma's pocket kings. Saad failed to catch an ace, but the board did bring four diamonds and he shipped the double thanks to his ace being of the diamond variety.

Others who advanced from the Day 1c flight are poker pro Aaron Massey (229,500), former MSPT FireKeepers champ Thomas Midena (155,500), Minnesota pro Aaron Johnson (122,500), defending champ Michael Ferrarotti (94,000), and circuit grinder Nick Pupillo (74,000).

Of course not everyone was so lucky. Those failing to make Day 2 today were World Series of Poker bracelet winners Adam Friedman and Nick Jivkov, Season 5 MSPT POY Mike Deis, MSPT Potawatomi champ and current POY leader Travis Lauson, and poker pro Kenna James.

With the 33 survivors from Day 1a and 61 from 1b, 167 total players will return for Day 2 action at 11:00 a.m. local time. Be sure to join us then as we capture all the action as we look to crown the champion of the MSPT's largest-ever event in the Midwest.

End-of-Day 1c Chip Counts

Nevada Saad bags the chip lead in Day 1c with 262,500 as 73/345 advance to Day 2.

NEVADA SAAD 262,500
AARON MASSEY 229,500
AARON WERST 195,500
MICHAEL ERMIE 186,000
MICHAEL ONEILL 177,500
MICHEAL FOLEY 172,500
WASAM KHEMMORO 161,500
STEVEN ANDERSON 157,500
THOMAS MIDENA 155,500
JAMES ALDEN 152,000
ABRAHAM MONTENEGRO 145,500
STEVEN CLARK 145,000
CODY STRANG 138,000
BLAKE LUTHER 137,000
ANDRZEJ ROGOWSKI 135,500
JACOB JAROUS 129,500
MUSTAFA SALIM 128,000
RICHARD BAI 125,500
MICHAEL KNAPICK 123,500
BRENT BURROWS 122,500
AARON JOHNSON 122,500
SHIQIANG LIN 119,500
CLAUDE PURCHES II 116,000
NOLAN BROWER 110,500
ALEXSANDER LUCAJ 110,000
KYLE HIGGS 108,500
ADAM SIMON 107,500
PETER HOTALING 107,000
MICHAEL PALMER 107,000
JASON OETTEL 106,500
PETER DONG KIM 101,500
RANDY NIHART 96,500
JASON TERRY 96,000
MICHAEL FERRAROTTI 94,000
NICHOLAS DAVIDSON 85,500
RODNEY DECKER 84,500
PAUL MATTIODA 78,500
THOMAS IHRIE 76,500
ALAN WALLER JR 75,000
NICHOLAS PUPILLO 74,000
BLEDAR SHAHOLLI 72,000
PAUL WELKE 69,500
CARL ROBERTS 68,500
DAVID BERMAN 68,000
GRIFF WOODMAN 67,000
PAUL STRICKLER 66,500
RICHARD RASHID 64,000
THEODORE ZALESSAK 61,000
ADAM BARRY 60,500
JESSE VILCHEZ 60,500
BRETT REICHARD 60,500
AO CHEN 58,500
KEITH FINLAYSON 54,000
RICARDO LARA 52,000
MICHAEL THOMPSON 52,000
WAYNE SMITH 48,000
ARTHUR MILLINGTON 47,500
JACOB STEARLEY 46,000
DOUGLAS SUFFEL 44,000
RODGER JOHNSON 43,500
JACOB WOJTUNIECKI 43,000
BRENT JOOST 41,000
KENDALL STEVENS 40,500
MICHAEL PARVIN 37,500
JARED BRICKLEY 36,000
KAMIRAN TAYMOUR 35,000
NICHOLAS BOGUS 35,000
STEVEN UNGREY 32,500
BENJAMIN SA REINHART 32,000
DANDRE BROWN 26,500
ROBERT KALTEUX 26,000
BRIAN RIEMERSMA 20,500
ANTON JANJAC 18,000

Four More Hands

The tournament staff has just announced that the remaining players will play four more hands before bagging and tagging for the night. Stay tuned for a list of survivors with chip counts, a full recap of the Day 1c action, and the seat draw for Day 2.

Brent Burrows vs. Nick Pupillo

Brent Burrows opened for 5,100 from middle position only to have Nick Pupillo three-bet to 13,000 from the cutoff. Action folded back to Burrows and he called to see a flop. Burrows checked, Pupillo bet 17,000, and Burrows paused for a few beats before check-raising all in, which put the pressure on Pupillo.

Pupillio debated for a bit whether or not to call off his remaining 48,000, and eventually settled on a fold.

Brent Burrows - 48,000

Nick Pupillo - 48,000

MSPT Champ TJ Ryan Busts

“I blinded myself out of the tournament,” TJ Ryan told us when we asked about his elimination. He then elaborated by saying that he had blinded down to 24,000 from 52,000 before three-betting all in. The original raiser called with pocket kings, Ryan held , and no miracle would help the two-time champ (he won a Main Event in 2013 and a Regional Event last year).

Meanwhile, Anthony Gianfermi was also eliminated from the tournament.

TJ Ryan - Busted

Anthony Gianfermi - Busted

Nevada Saad Gets Lucky to Stay Alive

We missed the hand unfold, but we do know Brian Riemersma and Nevada Saad just squared off in a big pot that saw the latter get lucky. It happened after a preflop raising war saw Saad get his stack of 98,300 in the middle.

Saad:

Riemersma:

The flop came down with two diamonds, and as you might guess, two more followed it on the turn and river to give Saad a winning flush.

Nevada Saad - 185,000

Brian Riemersma - 10,000

"Wild" Bill Rides Off Into the Sunset

“Wild” Bill Romer got the last of his chips, approximately 30,000, and found himself in dire straits against Griff Woodward.

Woodward:

Romer:

“I need some help,” Romer said as he got up out of his chair. The dealer heard him but did no oblige, instead putting out the unhelpful board of .

Griff Woodward - 95,000

Bill Romer - Busted

Last Break of the Night

Players are now on their last 10-minute break of the night. When they return they’ll play two more 40-minute levels before bagging and tagging.

Catching Up with 2015 WSOP Millionaire Maker Champ Adrian Buckley

Less than a year ago, 27-year-old Adrian Buckley (pictured) of Westminster, Colorado topped a field of 7,275 entries – the sixth-largest live tournament of all time – to win the 2015 World Series of Poker Millionaire Maker for $1,277,193.

Buckley, who holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado, had an interesting story on his way to winning that event. On Day 2, he bagged just 80,000, which made him the third-shortest stack among the 142 survivors. He somehow managed to survive Day 3, albeit dead last in chips among the final 17 players that included Andrew "Lucky Chewy" Lichtenberger, Mike Sexton, Erick Lindgren, and Olivier Busquet.

"I came here this year with a limited bankroll, and I told myself I'm going to play in 10 events and see how I do," Buckley said after the win. "I've been trying every once in awhile, because I've been a young kid just trying to get through school, and I've never really had the bankroll to actually play poker. I've done really well in cash games and stuff. I've been a cash game grinder for a long time, but never had the money to play in some big events."

Buckley was recently at the MSPT Golden Gates stop in Black Hawk, Colorado – where he bubbled the final table in 11^th place for $7,239 -- so we took the opportunity to catch up with the Millionaire Maker champ heading into the 2016 WSOP. While he isn’t here at FireKeepers, we still thought it worthwhile to share what he had to say.

MSPT: What have you been up to since your big win?

Buckley: It's been crazy. I've been traveling all over the world. Went to Ireland, went to Germany for the WSOP Europe. We've been all over the country. I've been able to do what I love doing. It's been fantastic.

You say we. Who do you mean?

Buckley: People that come join me. I'll invite people to come travel with me and such. Not everybody comes, but some people will join me. I had a really good friend go to Ireland with me, had a good time there. Now I'm back home until the WSOP.

Have you made any big purchases with your prize money?

Buckley: No. I'm kind of a nit in life, which is the opposite of poker laughs. Pretty agro in poker, pretty nitty in life. I bought a house, but it's for a rental. I have a couple of houses now, so that's nice. I'm able to do what I want to do. I paid off all my student loans, which is fantastic. I can live life the way I want now. I hit the jackpot, it's a dream come true man.

It's a touchy subject, action?

Buckley: I had 95% of myself, and the gentlemen who had 5% of me does not really want people to know who he is. I had almost all of my action. It was my eighth of eight tournaments I was going to play at the WSOP last year. I pretty much went bankroll bankrupt you could say. It was my last tournament and I was just going to go home and work again to save up some money. I got lucky in my last tournament, it's crazy.

What are you plans for the 2016 WSOP?

Buckley: I got a house with a bunch of grinder buddies. We're going to stay out in Vegas and grind the whole series. Hopefully play as many events as possible, or as few events as possible laughs, one of the two.

Finally, what is it about the MSPT that keeps you coming back?

Buckley: I actually love the structure of the MSPT. The way it's run, the way you're able to register, there aren't a lot of tables up here in Black Hawk unfortunately so you can't get a huge crowd, but the MSPT seems to structure it perfectly. It's my favorite tournament that comes through here each year. The updates are fantastic. I have no complaints at all.

"Wild" Bill Romer Denied a Double

With around 8,000 in the pot and a flop of , “Wild” Bill Romer checked from the big blind and Peter Kim bet 4,000 from early position. Romer responded by check-raising all in for 27,700, and Kim thought long and hard before making the call.

Romer:

Kim:

Romer flopped two pair and was primed to double, but he was denied as the appeared on the turn followed by the on the river. That put a straight on the board, which meant it was a chopped pot.

“You must be the luckiest guy in this room,” Romer vented while shaking his head.

Peter Kim - 120,000

Bill Romer - 31,000