The final ten players of the MSPT Potawatomi Main Event are now combining down to the final table. They will then be sent on a dinner break. Cards will be back in the air at 7:45 p.m. local time with the live stream starting 15 minute after that. Who will walk away with the $114,876 prize? You’ll have to tune in to find out.
We won’t be reporting anymore of the action here in live blog (other than an end-of-day recap), so if you want more in-depth coverage we encourage you to tune into the live stream to watch the action with hole cards on a 15-minute delay.
MSPT Live Stream on msptpoker.com -> CLICK HERE
MSPT Live Stream on Twitch -> CLICK HERE
Final Table
1 – Jim Juvancic (Westchester, IL) … 587,000
2 – Keith Heine (Hillsboro, MO) … 1.365 million
3 – Alex Ziskin (Vernon Hills, IL) … 704,000
4 – Ari Engel (Las Vegas, NV) … 1.358 million
5 – Brad Jansen (West Bend, WI … 1.357 million
6 – Rich Alsup (New Hope, MN) … 617,000
7 – Carlos Monteiro (Minneapolis, MN) … 928,000
8 – Patrick McCullough (Grand Rapids, MI) … 1.104 million
9 – Dan Crawford (Arlington, WI) … 844,000
10 – George Dietz (Oak Park, IL) … 1.035 million
The MSPT Potawatomi final table is a stacked one.
Headlining is Ari Engel, an eight-time World Series of Poker Circuit ring winner and the 2016 Aussie Millions champ, which was god for $1,120,110. Engel is notching his first cash on the MSPT to compliment an already impressive résumé comprised of nearly $4.5 million in live earnings dating back to 2006.
Also at the final table is Day 1B chip leader Alex Ziskin, who currently ranks ninth on Oklahoma’s all-time money list with $690,495 in live tournament earnings. Ziskin has been on fire this past year, first winning a WSOP gold bracelet last summer in Event #29: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em for $401,494, and then last November taking down the inaugural America’s Poker Tour Main Event for $47,490. He is seeking his second MSPT cash after finishing 25th in the MSPT Season 6 Meskwaki Main Event for $2,509.
Then there’s both Rich Alsup and Keith Heine, each MSPT royalty in their own rights.
The former is a reigning MSPT Season 7 Player of the Year and winner of the MSPT Meskwaki back in Season 6. Not including today, Alsup has 14 MSPT Main Event cashes totaling $311,686, which includes seven final table appearances.
As for Heine, he won the MSPT Meskwaki last season for $100,981. This is also his second final table in three weeks after finishing fifth in the MSPT Meskwaki at the end of March.
Dan Crawford of Arlington, Wisconsin is seeking redemption after finishing 12th in the MSPT Potawatomi Regional back in January – his only MSPT cash -- while Michigan’s Patrick McCullough is also looking at his second MSPT cash after finishing 33rd in last year’s Michigan State Poker Championship for $4,365.
This may be the first MSPT cash for Jim Juvancic, but don’t let that fool you. The man from Westchester, Illinois has nearly $500,000 in live tournament earnings including a career-best $81,707 for placing fourth in the WSOP Circuit Cherokee Main Event last August.
Then there’s George Dietz of Oak Park, Illinois, who is making his first MSPT final table after cashing in each of the past four years.
The final table is rounded out by Carlos Monteiro and Brad Jansen. Monteiro, who finished runner-up in a WSOP Circuit event here at Potawatomi a couple months ago, has one MSPT cash on his poker résumé while this is the first cash for Jansen. As for Jansen, who is notching his first MSPT cash, he took second in an event at Borgata earlier this year for $90,000.