The 2nd Annual Mid-States Poker Tour Iowa State Poker Championship at Meskwaki Casino turned out to be a record-setting affair by drawing a combined 451 entries (187 Day 1a & 264 Day 1b), which set a new state record for largest major ($1,000+ buy-in) by surpassing 426 entries from a MSPT event in 2014.
The massive turnout created a total $451,000 prize pool, which easily surpassed the advertised $300,000 guarantee. After 14 levels of play, 49 players remained with Milwaukee's John Sun and his stack of 275,500 leading the way. That is a little ahead of Day 1a chip leader Phil Mader, who bagged 236,500.
If you've ever watched one of our MSPT Potawatomi final table broadcasts, then there is a good chance your remember the entertaining Sun, who has a remarkable record on the MSPT. It started in Season 5 when he final tabled the MSPT Potawatomi, ultimately finishing in fifth place for $26,808. Two years later, which was in April of this year, he finished third in the same event for $50,017. Then, just last week, he placed seventh in the MSPT Potawatomi Regional Event for $9,497.
Sun only has three MSPT cashes on his résumé, and amazingly all are final table appearances at Potawatomi. Sun is obviously primed to notch his first MSPT cash outside of Wisconsin.
Others who punched their tickets to Day 2 were David Rutledge (240,000), Reg Powell (234,000), reigning MSPT Meskwaki champ Keith Heine (227,000), Brett Reichard (196,500), Aaron Johnson (182,000), Tom Hammers (124,500), MSPT Season 6 Player of the Year Mark Hodge (87,000), Rick "Moose" Syverud (61,000), and Kou Vang (37,000).
Among the throngs to fall on Day 1b were former MSPT champs Dan "DQ" Hendrickson, Josh Reichard, Andy Rubinberg, Moon Ahmed, Dan Sun and Erv Bjerga; MSPT Pro and commentator Matt Alexander; Minnesota Poker Hall of Famer Mike Schneider; and Mike Shin, who was fresh off finishing in 12th place in the 2016 World Series of Poker Main Event (interesting note, he is the cousin of John Sun).
Day 2 will kick off at 11 a.m. local time and the remaining 78 players will play until a winner is crowned. We'll capture all the action right here in the live blog, and the final table will also be live streamed online for the world to see.