Waalen Leads the Way on Day 1a of the 2020 MSPT Canterbury Park $1,100 Main Event
Day 1a of the 2020 Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) Canterbury Park $1,100 Main Event saw 223 entries logged and the accompanying action did not disappoint. Fifteen levels were on the docket for the day but the 12% figure of 26 players needed to reach a hard stop was attained just under a half hour early.
When that mark was reached, Brandon Waalen was the one atop the count. Waalen emerged as one of the big stacks in the room nearing the final break of the evening with a stack of around a quarter-million and built that figure up to 395,000 early in Level 14. He continued climbing from there and ended the day with 567,000, the only player with a stack over a half-million.
Following behind to round out the top five are four other players with over 400,000 in Kevin Boyer (453,000), Justin Thurlow (449,000), Jason Fitzpatrick (432,000), and Chan Pelton (417,000)
Other notable players to advance included Blake Bohn (331,000), Aaron Johnson (250,000), Richard Alsup (80,000), DJ Buckley (62,000) and Matt Kirby (55,000). Plenty of others were less fortunate: former MSPT Canterbury Park champions Rob Wazwaz and Kou Vang were only a couple of the day’s casualties, with others such as Phil Mader, Jesse Rockowitz, and Nghia “3 Putts” Le also unable to find a bag as play went on throughout the evening.
Saturday’s Day 1b will be the second and final opportunity to advance to Sunday’s Day 2, where the field will combine and play down to a winner. The $300,000 guaranteed prize pool has already come close to reaching 75% of its figure and that number is sure to be outdone on the second flight.
Like on Day 1a, cards are in the air at 3 p.m. Saturday for Day 1b. PokerNews will be on hand to bring you all the action, so be sure to come back and follow.
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, giving Stevermer a set of nines to leave his opponent drawing dead for the river 
. 
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and Ewald bet 15,000. Thurlow called and the river came 
. Thurlow nodded to confirm Ewald's hand was best and then sent his cards to the muck. With the pot, Ewald now finds himself at 367,000, just 10,000 shy of Thurlow as he climbs into contention for the chip lead with the end of the night looming near.
. Thurlow's flush was best when all was said and done and he delivered the final blow to Rockowitz after he stuck around with a short stack for nearly two hours before being eliminated from the tournament. However, he wasted no time using his reentry and has found a new seat and a fresh starting stack of 25,000.
and Petronack went all in for his last 19,000.
or the river 
and was eliminated from the tournament. On the other hand, Bohn's stack has ballooned up to just shy of 200,000 and he now finds himself among one of the biggest stacks across the eight tables left in play.
and Ewald had checked and was facing an all-in bet of 30,000. He thought agonizingly for about a minute and then called.
and the small blind deliberated for a moment. He then checked and Thurlow threw out a bet of 15,000. His opponent thought for about 20 seconds.
onto the felt and then followed it up with 
to show ten high. 
on the flop with an open-ended straight draw to Larson's pair of nines. 
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