Potawatomi Casino

Mark Fink Soars to the Top to Lead the 61 Survivors After Day 1B

Day 1b of the second-ever MSPT 100 GRAND STACK $1,110 Main Event has come to an end at Potawatomi Hotel & Casino after seeing an impressive 560 entries recorded, taking the two-day total thus far to 874, cruising past $500k GTD prize pool with one flight to go.

Another full day of action took course knocking down the 560 entries to just 61 players as the hard stop was reached in Level 17 with 38:01 remaining at 20,000/30,000/30,000 when North Dakota native Mark Fink put on a display ending the night with 2,715,000 for not only the top stack of the night, but good enough for the overall lead thus far.

Merritt Kuhn was able to navigate his way to second in chips with 2,085,000 while Edward Yi (2,035,000) being the only player to clip the two-milly mark.

Rounding out the top five stacks were Brett “Pops” Reichard (1,955,000) & Howie Feingold (1,858,000) while MSPT Hall of Famer’s Umut Ozturk (1,665,000) & Rich Alsup (1,665,000), two-time champ Dave Gonia (1,255,000), and Nic DiTrapani (1,160,000) are just a few more of the players to add their names to the Day 2 roster along with the 34 to have already advanced from Day 1a.

Among those to try and fall on Day 1b included MSPT champ Dan Goepel, Brian Berthiaume, Angela Gambino, Sarah Stefan, and MSPT champ Travis Young just to name a few.

The final starting flight will get underway tomorrow at noon local time, and it will be the last chance for players to punch their ticket into Sunday's Day 2.

Late registration and re-entries will remain open through Level 12 (approximately 9:10 p.m.)

MSPT Season 16 Potawatomi 100 GRAND STACK Festival Remaining Schedule

Make sure to tune in to see who makes it through to Day 2.

End Day 1B Chip Counts

Player Name	Chip Count	Previous	Progress
Mark Fink	2,715,000	1,975,000
Merritt Kuhn	2,085,000	1,340,000
Edward Yi	2,035,000	1,000,000
Brett Reichard	1,955,000	2,240,000
Howard Feingold	1,858,000	1,350,000
Vincent Giuliano	1,735,000	1,000,000
Richard Alsup	1,665,000	1,200,000
Umut Ozturk	1,665,000	1,400,000
Gregory Kukowski	1,655,000	1,100,000
Robert Hesslink	1,600,000	1,000,000
Drew Kutz	1,585,000	1,350,000
Serghei Borte	1,300,000	1,000,000
Ryan Davenport	1,260,000	615,000
Adam Thompson	1,260,000	1,000,000
David Gonia	1,255,000	1,300,000
Aaron Flores	1,255,000	1,000,000
Nicola DiTrapani	1,160,000	1,300,000
Chuck Kersey	1,125,000	1,750,000
Mykel Robble	1,125,000	1,000,000
Marc Chapedlaine	1,120,000	1,000,000
Dan Meyers	1,115,000	1,000,000
Ken Komberec	1,110,000	1,200,000
Paul Clements	1,110,000	1,000,000
Boshuang Gao	1,060,000	1,000,000
Jake Mustain	1,010,000	1,000,000
Edward Dixon	1,000,000	875,000
Harold Hampson	955,000	1,000,000
Theodore Witt	885,000	1,000,000
Brad Sailor	865,000	810,000
Asa Snyder	650,000	130,000
Brant Graves	650,000	600,000
Christopher Weber	635,000	100,000
Jaime Payne	635,000	100,000
Michael Kopczynski	630,000	100,000
Adam Jacobs	630,000	100,000
Cody Bartlett	630,000	100,000
Arturas Astrauskas	605,000	505,000
Blake Borden	560,000	100,000
Jason Kamfman	560,000	100,000
Rob WazWaz	560,000	600,000
Phil Mader	550,000	910,000
Harrison Genson	550,000	100,000
Angela Jordison	535,000	788,000
Antony Phillips	525,000	100,000
Paul Choi	520,000	480,000
Paul Elfelt	520,000	630,000
Wei-Chian Hsu	500,000	100,000
Anthony Veckey	500,000	100,000
Michael Kamenjarin	490,000	450,000
Theresa Brown	485,000	500,000
Steve Shniper	485,000	100,000
Joe Beukendorf	410,000	100,000
James Kasputis	410,000	100,000
Doug Timmer	380,000	100,000
Erik Behling	375,000	100,000
David Gutfreund	360,000	270,000
Philip Khuu	340,000	100,000
Eric Stangel	300,000	350,000
Patrick Stroman	270,000	100,000
David Grandin	190,000	425,000
James Ahlers	105,000	100,000

Rob Hesslink Sets Up Nick Minniecheske on the Bubble

Nick Minniecheske open-jammed 130,000 under the gun and Rob Hesslink isolated with a 300,000 three-bet from the button.

Nick Minniecheske:
Rob Hesslink:

Minniecheske was trailing Hesslink’s pair of kings until an ace appeared in the window on the flop.

Unfortunately for Minniecheske, his victory was short lived, as the dealer turned the improving Hesslink to a set of kings, and the river eliminated Minniecheske on the bubble.

Rob Hesslink - 1,600,000
Nick Minniecheske - 0

Snyder Spikes the Flop to Double on the Bubble

Chuck Kersey raised from middle position and then called Asa Snyder’s three-bet jam from the cutoff.

Asa Snyder:
Chuck Kersey:

Snyder rolled over a dominated ace but connected with the flop to take the lead.

The fell on the turn keeping Snyder in the lead and the river secured his double on the bubble.

Chuck Kersey - 1,100,000
Asa Snyder - 650,000

Graves Doubles Through Snyder with Aces; Hand-for-Hand Begins

Brant Graves was all in preflop for 345,000 and was called by Asa Snyder.

Brant Graves:
Asa Snyder:

Graves rolled over a monster and the runout secured him the late-night double.

After Graves’ double-up, a flurry of eliminations happened taking play to hand-for-hand with 62 players remaining.

Brant Graves - 700,000
Asa Snyder - 130,000

Late Night Counts & Bust Outs

Player Name	Chip Count	Previous	Progress
Brett Reichard	2,240,000	1,290,000
Drew Kutz	1,350,000	1,000,000
Howard Feingold	1,350,000	500,000
Merritt Kuhn	1,340,000	700,000
David Gonia	1,300,000	800,000
Nicola DiTrapani	1,300,000	1,210,000
Richard Alsup	1,200,000	1,100,000
Gregory Kukowski	1,200,000	1,100,000
Phil Mader	910,000	500,000
Brad Sailor	810,000	560,000
Paul Elfelt	630,000	1,100,000
Ryan Davenport	615,000	500,000
Brant Graves	600,000	600,000
Theresa Brown	500,000	1,040,000
Eric Stangel	350,000	750,000
Asa Snyder	130,000	1,200,000
Michael Scorsone	0	487,000
Joe Matheson	0	500,000
Andy Hammell	0	100,000
Tom Hammers	0	400,000
Bob Heffner	0	295,000
Sarah Stefan	0	485,000

Matt Koba Walks Away with an Ultimate Win

Over the past week, players have been inside Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, duking it out for the the second-ever MSPT 100 GRAND STACK Festival in Milwaukee, WI.

In Event #6: $200 NLH Ultimate Stack, 278 ultimate players took to the tables and generated a $44,480 prize pool that was paid out to the top 28 players.

Among those to cash but fall before the final table were Richard Schuster (10th Place - $640), James Kelly (11th Place -$640), and Anthony De Jesus (12th Place - $640).

In the end, it was Illinois native Matt Kouba who came away with the win to take home the lion's share of the prize pool along with the 100 GRAND STACK Festival trophy!

Final Table Results

* denotes 3-way deal

Veckey Sets Up Elfelt for a Double

Anthony Veckey raised from middle position only to call off his 235,000 stack after Paul Elfelt three-bet jammed for more from the big blind.

Anthony Veckey:
Paul Elfelt:

Veckey was ahead holding a pair of ladies and saw another in the window on the flop, giving him top set while Elfelt picked up a gut shot straight draw.

Luckily for Veckey, the board completed with running on the turn and river, improving him to a full house to secure his double.

Paul Elfelt - 1,100,000
Anthony Veckey - 500,000

Stacks & Empty Seats

Player Name	Chip Count	Previous	Progress
Mark Fink	1,975,000	1,650,000
Umut Ozturk	1,400,000	1,200,000
Nicola DiTrapani	1,210,000	867,000
Ken Komberec	1,200,000	813,000
Gregory Kukowski	1,100,000	1,300,000
Paul Elfelt	1,100,000	1,218,000
Angela Jordison	788,000	630,000
Merritt Kuhn	700,000	530,000
Rob WazWaz	600,000	445,000
Brad Sailor	560,000	215,000
Phil Mader	500,000	265,000
Sarah Stefan	485,000	271,000
David Grandin	425,000	760,000
Dalton Jones	0	467,000
Jean (Prince) Gaspard	0	285,000
Justin Gish	0	220,000
Brian Berthiaume	0	164,000
Evan Bethyo	0	100,000
Steve Buell	0	200,000
Kevin McMahon	0	280,000
Chris Moon	0	154,500
Carl Oman	0	210,000
Jacob Long	0	100,000
George Pappas	0	215,000
Michael Puccio	0	279,000
Freddy West	0	440,000
Michael Wilklow	0	100,000
Byron Ziebell	0	385,000

The MSPT Takes Flight to JACK CLEVELAND! for the Season 16 Ohio State Poker Championship!

For the first time this season, the MSPT is headed to JACK Cleveland, February 11th - 17th for the 2025 Ohio State Poker Championship!

A $400 No-Limit Hold'em Tag Team Event will award the first trophy of the series starting at 4:15 on Tuesday, February 11th, followed by Event #2: $300 NLH Seniors on Wednesday, February 12th at 11:15 a.m.

A series of $70 and $265 satellites will feed into the $1,110 buy-in Ohio State Poker Championship, which requires players to be 21+ to play.

The Main Event, which will offer a $500K GTD, will offer three starting flights with Day 1A beginning at 3:15 p.m. on Thursday, February 13th.

Day 1B will follow at 12:15 p.m. on Friday, February 14th with the final starting flight beginning at the same time on Saturday, February 15th.

The surviving players from all starting flights will then return at 11:15 a.m. on Sunday, February 16th to play down to a winner.

Closing out the trophy series will be a $350 President's Day Monster Stack NLH beginning at 2:15 p.m.

In addition, the entire Main Event will be live reported in the MSPT live blog.
Click here for a look at the full schedule.