Potawatomi Casino

Shane Thorne Takes Overall Chip Lead into Day 2

Day 1c of the second-ever MSPT 100 GRAND STACK $1,110 Main Event has come to an end at Potawatomi Hotel & Casino as the final starting flight brought in an astonishing 823 runners, which, along with 1a's 314 and 1b’s 560, brought the field total up to 1,697 entries.

The 1,697 total tally was able to claim the top spot for most entries recorded in a poker tournament in Wisconsin history, and the $1,644,590 prize pool that was generated went down in the history books as well.

At the end of the final flight, just 90 players bagged and tagged with Shane Thorne bagging the top stack of 4,200,000 leading the charge into Day 2. Thorne was able to catapult to the top of the chip counts after he cooled off Mark Kroon in nut to second-nut flush hand

Following behind Throne were Steve WazWaz (2,510,000), Tom Hammers (2,455,000), Mario Hudson (2,405,000), and Songjie Zhou (2,000,000) rounded out the top five stacks and were the only others to clip the two-milly mark.

They were joined by MSPT Hall of Famer Gerald Cunniff (1,465,000), WSOP bracelet winner Robert Mitchell (1,380,000), James Gregg (1,330,000), Freddy West (1,245,000), and Gabe Neighbors (1,230,000).

Among MSPT Main Event champs who fell short one Day 1c included Dan Bekavac, Carl Oman, Matthew Eng, Max Havlish, Daniel Goepel, Ben Pettinger, and MSPT Hall of Famer Chris Moon just to name a few.

Day 2 will get underway at 11:00 a.m. local time and play to a winner with 185 players (34 from Day 1a, 61 from 1b, and 90 from 1c) returning to the felt.

Each of the returning Day 2 players is guaranteed at least $1,800, with the eventual winner walking away with a $271,248 first-place prize.

MSPT Season 16 Potawatomi 100 GRAND STACK Festival Remaining Schedule

Congratulations to everyone who advanced to Day 2! We will see you at 11:00 a.m. for final day coverage of the MSPT 100 GRAND STACK $1,110 Main Event at Potawatomi Hotel & Casino!

End Day 1C Chip Counts

Player Name	Chip Count	Previous	Progress
Shane Thorne	4,200,000	3,300,000
Steve WazWaz	2,510,000	2,000,000
Tom Hammers	2,455,000	2,200,000
Mario Hudson	2,405,000	1,620,000
Songjie Zhou	2,000,000	1,600,000
Andrew Keeney	1,955,000	1,955,000
Rodney Wright	1,625,000	1,625,000
Jeff Schwartz	1,610,000	1,000,000
Nikolay Terziev	1,545,000	1,545,000
Tim Jurasewicz	1,490,000	625,000
Adam Keen	1,485,000	1,485,000
Gerald Cunniff	1,465,000	780,000
Robert Mitchell	1,380,000	730,000
Ben Krauss	1,355,000	1,355,000
Rio Lara	1,340,000	1,340,000
James Gregg	1,330,000	940,000
Sung Kim	1,255,000	1,255,000
Antonio Modacure	1,245,000	1,245,000
Freddy West	1,245,000	1,020,000
Gabriel Neighbors	1,230,000	1,020,000
Oliwer Sankiewicz	1,155,000	1,155,000
Matt Sprengel	1,150,000	1,150,000
Kurt Fraser	1,145,000	1,145,000
George Dietz	1,140,000	900,000
Dheeraj Aryasomayajula	1,130,000	1,130,000
Thomas Grutsch	1,110,000	1,110,000
Patrick Shields	1,085,000	1,085,000
Michael Wessels	1,085,000	585,000
Ryan Eamon	1,070,000	1,070,000
Glenn Stout	1,035,000	1,035,000
Ariel Kotzen-Reich	1,001,000	700,000
Anthony Johnson	995,000	995,000
Reed Martin	970,000	970,000
Jake Steede	950,000	950,000
Tanner Pray	945,000	945,000
James Silversmet	940,000	940,000
Matthew Schurter	925,000	1,000,000
Caden Coleman	910,000	485,000
John Sun	890,000	710,000
Michael VanderWoude	885,000	826,000
Robert Willems	850,000	650,000
Brent Strittmater	835,000	835,000
Michael Estes	820,000	600,000
Jason Gross	805,000	805,000
Zach Gutierrez	800,000	1,000,000
Livingston Robinson	800,000	800,000
Joshua Swimm	790,000	790,000
Jessica Anderson	760,000	110,000
Dave Soderstrom	755,000	755,000
Victor Ellingsen	730,000	730,000
Jason Sell	700,000	600,000
Rory Linton	700,000	400,000
Peter Wilcox	690,000	690,000
Kirstin Ives	680,000	680,000
Elizabeth Ethridge	670,000	226,000
Jon Tackett	670,000	670,000
Daniel Stickel	650,000	650,000
Mark Van Keirsbilck	635,000	635,000
Tim Votava	595,000	595,000
Stephen Thery	590,000	590,000
Curtis Vierstraete	565,000	250,000
Adam Tolander	560,000	480,000
Michael Lu	560,000	560,000
Arlo Strozewski	555,000	780,000
Daniel Schmidt	545,000	700,000
Mark Borowski	540,000	540,000
Tim Kelly	530,000	530,000
Kyle Engelbrecht	525,000	525,000
Dimitre Dimitrov	525,000	525,000
Kanat Ozturk	490,000	320,000
Mark Larson (MN)	475,000	445,000
Leo Pinamonti	470,000	470,000
Paul Saharsky	470,000	470,000
Robert Blyth	400,000	400,000
Kasey Sipiorski	385,000	385,000
Lee Rzentkowski	385,000	680,000
Anthony Rybold	375,000	375,000
Paul Duyvejonck	375,000	375,000
James Kelly	360,000	360,000
Dillon Ellis	355,000	1,200,000
Steven Lucchetti	350,000	350,000
Nicholas Minniecheske	340,000	340,000
Steve Houle	340,000	340,000
Stephen Pelkofer	320,000	320,000
William Spiegel	305,000	305,000
Jordan Lawrence	275,000	275,000
Matthew Andrews (WI)	250,000	250,000
Timothy Thorp	230,000	630,000
Kyle Kramer	225,000	225,000
Richard Starr	155,000	155,000

Jeff Schwartz Eliminates Evan Bethyo on the Bubble

Jeff Schwartz opened for 75,000 from middle position and found two callers before Evan Bethyo squeezed his 460,000 stack in the middle from the big blind.

With action back on Schwartz, he decided to go over the top and gave Bethyo isolation.

Evan Bethyo:
Jeff Schwartz:

It was a cooler situation for Bethyo as Schwartz rolled over the best premium hand and the runout ended his Main Event on the bubble.

Jeff Schwartz - 1,500,000
Evan Bethyo - Eliminated

Bartelme Dropped by Hudson; Hand-for-Hand Begins

Mario Hudson raised from the hijack and then called Melissa Bartelme’s 260,000 three-bet jam from the small blind.

Melissa Bartelme:
Mario Hudson:

Bartelme was behind holding suited live cards and the flop gave her the nut flush draw while pairing Hudson’s ace.

The turn left Bartelme needing any diamond on the river to stay alive, but the completed the board and ended her tournament.

After Bartelme’s departure, a flurry of eliminations occurred taking action to the hand-for-hand process.

Mario Hudson - 1,600,000
Melissa Bartelme - Eliminated

Late Night Counts & Bust Outs

Player Name	Chip Count	Previous	Progress
Shane Thorne	3,300,000	2,600,000
Tom Hammers	2,200,000	740,000
Mario Hudson	1,620,000	700,000
Songjie Zhou	1,600,000	1,350,000
Loki Abboud	1,500,000	515,000
Matthew Schurter	1,000,000	625,000
Jeff Schwartz	1,000,000	100,000
Daniel Jesudason	975,000	900,000
George Dietz	900,000	330,000
John Sun	710,000	504,000
Ariel Kotzen-Reich	700,000	535,000
Lee Rzentkowski	680,000	140,000
Ben Luber	635,000	307,000
Mark Larson (MN)	445,000	230,000
Linas Kasputis	350,000	731,000
Kanat Ozturk	320,000	190,000
Curtis Vierstraete	250,000	825,000
Kyle Wagner	0	410,000
Joe Matheson	0	210,000
Brittany Spain	0	130,000
Christopher Underwood	0	414,000
Kentraylus Pates	0	467,000
John Pierce	0	370,000
Matthew Porter	0	340,000
Bou Leuaxay	0	468,000
Nicholas Kromschroeder	0	470,000
Melissa Bartelme	0	535,000
Eddie Blumenthal	0	590,000

Sell Fills Up to Stay Alive

MSPT champ Jason Sell was all in preflop for 355,000 and was called by the cutoff.

Jason Sell:
Opponent:

It was a race with Sell falling behind after the flop fell pairing his opponent's ace.

The 8g turn was no help to Sell and just as he stood from his seat, the dealer dropped the on the river to keep his Main Event hopes alive.

Jason Sell - 760,000

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

Round of Counts & Bust Outs

Player Name	Chip Count	Previous	Progress
Ariel Kotzen-Reich	1,460,000	575,000
Gabriel Neighbors	1,020,000	320,000
James Gregg	940,000	570,000
Linas Kasputis	731,000	225,000
Robert Mitchell	730,000	304,000
Mario Hudson	700,000	435,000
Daniel Schmidt	700,000	1,120,000
Robert Willems	650,000	356,000
Timothy Thorp	630,000	230,000
Matthew Schurter	625,000	132,000
Evan Bethyo	600,000	240,000
Eddie Blumenthal	590,000	435,000
Michael Wessels	585,000	920,000
Loki Abboud	515,000	350,000
Caden Coleman	485,000	840,000
Rory Linton	415,000	880,000
Matthew Porter	340,000	710,000
George Dietz	330,000	470,000
Lee Rzentkowski	140,000	520,000
Vic Peppe	0	432,000
Scott Vetter	0	176,000
Sean Hinton	0	234,000
Joe Batterman	0	240,000
Daniel Bekavac	0	350,000
DJ Buckley	0	430,000
Cody Mondeau	0	414,000
Bradley Jansen	0	530,000
Jonathan Kim (MN)	0	243,000

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.

Bai Loses Race to Zhou

MSPT champ Richard Bai was all in preflop for a rough starting stack from late position and Songjie Zhou looked him up from the button.

Richard Bai:
Songjie Zhou:

Bai was racing for his tournament life but wasn’t able to take the lead after the runout ended his Main event run.

Songjie Zhou - 1,350,000
Richard Bai - Eliminated