"Farmer" Phil Mader Leads as 34 Players Bag on Day 1b of the MSPT Season 10 Finale
Day 1b of the Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) Season 10 finale saw 263 entrants take to the felt, which along with 1a’s 172 brought the total field up to 435 entries with Saturday’s final flight still to go. After nearly 15 levels of play, just 34 bagged with Phil Mader and his stack of 397,000 leading the way. That is a little behind of Day 1a chip leader Bill Kachel, who made it through with 406,500.
Others to bag big stacks were Steve Wilkie (354,500), MSPT Hall of Famer Aaron Johnson (326,000), Charles Costanzo (266,500), and Chan Pelton (266,000), who round out the top five.
They were joined by players like Rob Wazwaz (253,500), Jonathan Kim (203,500), Ryan Phan (167,000), Vlad Revniaga (149,500), Barb Blechinger (110,500), James Gibson (104,000), Tom Stambaugh (102,500), and Craig Trost (92,500).
Of course, not everyone was so lucky. Among those to fire and fall on Day 1b were Colorado’s Sammy Aweida, WSOP bracelet winner John Reading, two-time Minnesota Magazine Player of the Year Saad Ghanem, former MSPT commentator Matt Alexander, 2019 HPT Player of the Year Nick Pupillo, Randy “Fish” Oyarzabal, three-time MSPT champs Matt Kirby and Blake Bohn, and both Dan “DQ” Hendrickson and Kou Vang, the only two players to have cashed all 10 seasons of the MSPT.
Those players, as well as any newcomers, have one more opportunity to play. Day 1c will get underway at 3 p.m. local time on Saturday. The surviving players from all three flights will then return to Canterbury at 11 a.m. on Sunday to play down to a winner. The final table will be live-streamed worldwide on a 15-minute delay.