Ameristar East Chicago

Ivan Delvalle Bags Top Stack to Lead Seven Survivors After Day 1A

A lengthy day of 14 levels has wrapped up during the MSPT $1,110 Main Event at Ameristar Casino Hotel, with seven of 63 entries making it through to Day 2.

Once the hard stop was reached in the last level, only 2:11 remained when Ivan Delvalle counted out 632,000 to put in his bag to end the night, leading the advancing players by a wide margin.

Bagging behind Delvalle was Nino Papava with 386,000, with J Peterson (270,000), Jamie Payne (225,000), and Brendan Shiller (220,000), rounding out the top five stacks, while Saad Ghanem (83,000) and Steve Downey (75,000) were the only others to punch their ticket into Sunday’s Day 2.

Of course, not everyone was fortunate enough to survive the night. Among those to fire and fall in Thursday’s flight were MSPT champ Lee Rzentkowski, Bohdan Slyvinskyi, Pawel Kotara, and last November’s final tablists Xi Nguyen & Jerry Miller, to name a few.

Those players, as well as any newcomers, have two more starting flights to jump back into action.

Day 1b will kick off at Noon local time on Friday, April 24^th, while the third and final flight, Day 1c, will take place at the same time on Saturday, April 25^th.

The surviving players from each flight will then return at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, April 26^th, to play down to a winner.

MSPT Season 17 Ameristar East Chicago Remaining Schedule

Join us tomorrow as we continue to bring you all the action and eliminations straight from the tournament floor at the Ameristar Casino!

End Day 1A Chip Counts

Player Name	Chip Count	Previous	Progress
Ivan Delvalle	632,000	495,000
Nino Papava	386,000	326,000
J Peterson	270,000	190,000
Jamie Payne	225,000	270,000
Brendan Shiller	220,000	164,000
Saad Ghanem	83,000	90,000
Steven Downey	75,000	88,000

Imran Sajwani Bubbles Day 1A

J Peterson raised to 12,000 from middle position and found two callers before Imran Sajwani squeezed his 56,000 stack in the middle from the big blind.

With action back on Peterson, he decided to four-bet jam over the top, giving Sajwani isolation.

Imran Sajwani:
J Peterson:

Sajwani picked the wrong time to get aggressive, as the runout gave Peterson top set, ending his night on the bubble.

J Peterson - 285,000
Imran Sajwani - 0

Chip Collectors & Givers

Player Name	Chip Count	Previous	Progress
Ivan Delvalle	495,000	270,000
Nino Papava	326,000	264,000
Jamie Payne	270,000	285,000
J Peterson	190,000	77,000
Brendan Shiller	164,000	260,000
Saad Ghanem	90,000	240,000
Steven Downey	88,000	73,000
Imran Sajwani	53,000	97,000

Don't Miss the Season 17 Michigan Poker State Championship!

: FireKeepers Casino Hotel - Battle Creek, MI

: May 12-17, 2026

: $1,110 / $1,000,000 GTD Main Event (May 14-17)
: $3,500 MSPT Championship Seat ADDED to Main Event 1st Place

: 9 Gold Card Events

: https://msptpoker.com/.../book-today-for-the-1m-gtd~1610...

Event Schedule: https://msptpoker.com/showpdf.aspx?eventID=517msptpoker.com

Payneful Turn for Buckley

Photo: DJ Buckely

DJ Buckley raised all-in from under the gun, and action on the table folded to Jamie Payne, who looked him up from the big blind.

DJ Buckley:
Jamie Payne:

Buckley was behind holding two live cards, and connected with the flop to take the lead.

However, the dealer then turned giving Payne the lead with Broadway, and then followed with the on the river, ending Buckley’s night.

Jamie Payne - 285,000
DJ Buckley - 0

Updated Counts & Bust Outs

Player Name	Chip Count	Previous	Progress
Jamie Payne	285,000	175,000
Ivan Delvalle	270,000	347,000
Nino Papava	264,000	195,000
Brendan Shiller	260,000	290,000
Saad Ghanem	240,000	307,500
Imran Sajwani	97,000	124,000
J Peterson	77,000	143,000
Steven Downey	73,000	71,500
Kevin Andriamahefa	0	31,500
DJ Buckley	0	30,000

Registration Closed

Registration for Day 1a is officially closed with 63 entrants tallied for the first flight.

The plan is to play until 11% of the field (7 players) is reached, with the tournament clock reading 11 players remaining.

$3,500 MSPT Championship Main Event Seat Winners So Far!

These 12 Players have already earned a $3,500 Seat to the $2M GTD RRPO MSPT Championship Main Event

Matthew Wantman

Kevin Meyers

Zilong Zhang

Vincent Moscati

June Kim

Alex Foxen

Umut Ozturk

Jorden Helstern

Aaron Johnson

Wesley Cannon

Michael Estes

Yuchen “Carson” Chen

ROCK ‘N’ ROLL POKER OPEN (RRPO)

MSPT Championship (MAJOR)

: Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino - Hollywood, FL

: Nov. 18 - Dec. 2, 2026

: $3,500 Main Event (1.5X POY) / $2M GTD (Nov. 27 - Dec. 2)

: MSPT will be ADDING a $3,500 RRPO MSPT Championship Seat to every Main Event 1st Place in 2026

Up and Down Battle

Player Name	Chip Count	Previous	Progress
Ivan Delvalle	347,000	210,000
Saad Ghanem	307,500	215,000
Brendan Shiller	290,000	260,000
Nino Papava	195,000	142,500
Jamie Payne	175,000	180,000
J Peterson	143,000	127,500
Imran Sajwani	124,000	90,500
Steven Downey	71,500	145,500
Hannah Richardson	45,000	85,500
Kevin Andriamahefa	31,500	102,500
Steven Wong	0	60,000
Daniel Johnson	0	73,000
Pawel Kotara	0	30,000