With 20 minutes remaining on Day 1a of the Mid-States Poker Tour Meskwaki Main Event – a tournament that attracted 409 entries and created a $409,000 prize pool – 34-year-old Keith Heine had a tough decision to make – to gamble or limp into Day 2 with a short stack. He made his decision, and ultimately it lead to him capturing the title and a $100,981 first-place prize.
You might be thinking Heine opted to limp into Day 2, but that wasn't the case. He decided to gamble and picked a spot with king-nine, which he promptly ran into ace-queen to bust. While he had satellited into Day 1a, Heine opted to buy in direct on Day 1b, which led to him bagging 253,000 and advancing to Day 2 sixth in chips out of 71 returning players.
With 45 players slated to get paid, 26 players would leave empty handed. They included Jeff Bryan, Jason Bender, Tom Frith, Todd "Odds" Haugen, Tom Hammers, and Steve Houle, who finished as the bubble boy.
From there, the in-the-money finishes began to mount and included Rodger Johnson (45th - $1,976), Rick Syverud (41st - $1,976), Scotter Clark (34th - $2,174), Josh Reichard (25th - $2,450), Jack Parisi (21st - $2,450), Day 1b chip leader Brian Berthiaume (18th - $3,122), Allen Kessler (15th - $3,952), and defending champ Rich Alsup (13th - $3,952).
The play down from 12 to the final 10 took longer than expect, which meant by the time the final table rolled around players were on the shorter side of things. That meant for a lot of fireworks during which time a lot of players were burned including Chris Scionti (9th - $7,910), two-time MSPT champ Dan Sun (8th - $11,462), and Day 1a chip leader and former MSPT champ Muneer "Moon" Ahmed (5th - $22,528).
With four players left action was fast and furious. First Heine dispatched MSPT champ TJ Ryan in fourth – the result of Ryan running pocket fours into Heine's jacks – and then turned right around and finished off a short-stacked Jason Crews in third.
That allowed Heine to take a commanding lead into heads-up play against Omaha cash game player Ryan Phan. Heine crippled Phan in back-to-back hands and then finished him off with jack-ten, which flopped two pair against Phan's five-three after they got it all in preflop.
Final Table Results
| Rank |
Player Name |
City |
State |
Amount |
Points |
| 1 |
Keith Heine |
Hillsboro |
MO |
$100,981 |
1,500 |
| 2 |
Ryan Phan |
Omaha |
NE |
$58,296 |
1,300 |
| 3 |
Jason Crews |
Clive |
IA |
$35,571 |
1,200 |
| 4 |
TJ Ryan |
Oak Forest |
IL |
$28,654 |
1,100 |
| 5 |
Muneer Ahmed |
Dassel |
MN |
$22,528 |
1,000 |
| 6 |
Kevin Berthelsen |
Omaha |
NE |
$18,773 |
900 |
| 7 |
Chunlei Yuan |
Ames |
IA |
$15,019 |
800 |
| 8 |
Dan Sun |
Cedar Rapids |
IA |
$11,462 |
700 |
| 9 |
Chris Scionti |
Montgomery |
IL |
$7,910 |
600 |
| 10 |
Shawn Roberts |
Ozark |
MO |
$5,138 |
500 |
Prior to the win, Heine had just $12,850 in live tournament cashes, most of which came when he finished runner-up in the 2015 World Poker Tour Choctaw Event #14: $350 No-Limit Hold'em for $9,150. Now, Heine has nearly ten times that amount, which he intends to spend on his wife and four sons (ages nine, seven, five and three) by putting it towards a new house.
Congratulations to Keith Heine, the latest MSPT Meskwaki champ!
Season 7 of the MSPT will continue March 25 through April 3 at Running Aces Casino in Columbus, Minnesota, with that $200,000 guaranteed Main Event taking place the first week in April.