Day 1A of the $1,100 MSPT Grand Falls Main Event attracted 81 entrants to the luxury venue and golf resort just south of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. By the end of the night, the field was whittled down to just nine players with Luke Blindert and his stack of 332,000 leading the way.

Blindert got a lot of his chips in the last hand of the night when Eric Eelkema got his stack of 100K all in preflop with ace-queen. Blindert held ace-jack and a jack spiked on the river to claim a 200K pot. This isn’t Blindert’s first taste of success at the MSPT Grand Falls. Back in Season 4 he finished fourth in the Main Event for $12,687.

Others to bag big were Jon Midler (236,000), Erick Woehlhaff(228,500), and Mark Meeder (212,500). They were joined by the likes of James Curl (159,000), James Girouard (134,500), Todd Helsper (123,500), Travis Sweet (111,000), and Henry Terwee (80,000).

Among those to compete but fall on Friday were defending champ Ahmed Taleb, four-time World Series of Poker Circuit ring winner Mark Fink, 2018 MSPT Iowa State Poker Championship Brian Soja, MSPT Season 8 Grand Falls Regional champ Travis Gant, PokerNews reporter Mo Nuwwarah, current Kimo Sabe Mezcal MSPT Season 9 Player of the Year points leader Aaron Johnson, and Minnesota players Dave Rutledge, Alex Winter, and Tom & Sherry Hammers.

Those players will have another opportunity to try again if they so choose as Day 1B will kick off at 2 p.m. local time on Saturday. Before it, there will be a “last chance” $250 Turbo Satellite at 10 a.m. The top 20% of players in that satty will win a seat into the Main Event.

Be sure to join us tomorrow as we bring you continued coverage of the MSPT Grand Falls!