$1,100 Main Event ($150K GTD) Day 1b | 2020 Mid-States Poker Tour Grand Falls

08-29-2020 14:34 UTC-5

Welcome to Day 1b of the MSPT Grand Falls Main Event!

Chad Holloway

At the beginning of the year, the Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) was primed for Season 11 and even hosted three stops before the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted things, just like it did for so many other tours and venues.

This weekend, the MSPT Season 11 continues, at least for one stop, with the $1,100 buy-in, $150,000 GTD Main Event at Grand Falls Casino, just outside Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

The event, which requires players to be 21+ and will be live reported by PokerNews, marks the first mid-major tournament in the United States in nearly six months.

The $1,100 Main Event, which will require players to wear masks, features two starting flights and Friday's Day 1a drew 226 entries. After a hard stop 10 minutes into Level 15, just 27 players bagged and tagged with Kevin Berthelsen and his stack of 541,000 leading the way. Rounding out the top five big stacks were William Chao (427,000), Stephen Cleghorn (357,000), Tim Garles (310,000), and Curtis Vierstraete (296,000).

Others to punch their tickets to Day 2 were Donnie Phan (248,000), Steve Federspiel (227,000), Kyna England (207,000), Jason Seitz (191,000), Tyler Kolness (141,000), and Ryan Phan (95,000).

Of course, not everyone was fortunate enough to make it through the night. Among those to fire and fall in Friday’s flight were two-time South Dakota State Poker Championship winner Ryan Skluzak, WSOP Circuit studs Blake Whittington and Nick Pupillo, Howard Hankin’s BFF Cody Brinn, “Bemidji” Eric Anderson, and MSPT Hall of Famer Rich Alsup. There's a good chance we see most of them give it another go today in the second flight.

Day 1B will get underway shortly. The surviving players from both flights will then return at 11 a.m. on Sunday, August 30 to play down to a winner.

The MSPT last visited Grand Falls Casino for a Main Event back in September when Jesse Rockowitz topped a 175-entry field to win the tournament for $45,425. The time before that, Ryan Skluzak bested a 226-entry field to win it for $54,427.

The last MSPT stop in general, which took place March 4-8, was actually at Grand Falls Casino, though it was a $350 buy-in Regional Event. Swadeep Mishra took down that tournament for $23,467

08-29-2020 15:05 UTC-5

Download the PokerNews MyStack App and Update Your Chip Count

Chad Holloway

Level 1 : 100/100, 100 ante

PokerNews has activated the My Stack App for this event, allowing you to directly adjust your chip counts in our live reporting blog using your iPhone or Android phone.

You can download the app for iPhone or Android now to get started. Then, create a new PokerNews account or update your current one to start updating your status immediately. Your followers can see all the live-action that you're involved in.

Click here to download the My Stack app for iPhone, or click here to download the My Stack app for Android.

08-29-2020 16:19 UTC-5

Industry Insiders: Grand Falls Poker Room Manager Renee Thomas

Chad Holloway

Level 2 : 100/200, 200 ante

Grand Falls Casino & Golf Resort was granted an operator's license for a casino in May of 2010, which followed the passage of a referendum approving a gaming structure by the citizens of Lyon County, Iowa in September of 2008. Since then, the property has won a number of awards including Midwest Gaming and Destination Magazine 2016 Readers’ Choice Awards for “Best Amenities,” “Best Golf Course,” and “Best Casino Personnel.”

It also ranked as the second-best overall property in Iowa, second-best for amenities in the entire Midwest, and having the best golf course in the entire Midwest! As far as poker at Grand Falls is concerned, Renee Thomas, a mother of three and grandmother of two (not to mention her 3 lbs. Chihuahua that she claims runs the show at her house), is the woman spearheading the team that makes the action happen.

“I’ve been in the casino industry for 26 years in three states,” Thomas tells MSPT Magazine. “I started out dealing
blackjack in South Dakota for a year before transferring to poker as a dealer. I became a supervisor there and then managed the room for three and a half years. After 10 years, I moved to Colorado and followed the same path of dealing, supervising and then managing the Lady Luck poker room for six years.”

After Lady Luck, a sister property to Golden Gates Poker Renee Thomas Parlour (another MSPT stop) just down the street, Thomas set her sights on returning to the Midwest.

“As much as I loved Colorado, I knew that I would eventually want to move back closer to my family,” Thomas explains. “A friend had told me about a casino possibly being built in Larchwood, Iowa so I started paying attention when the state was doing impact studies. When Grand Falls was hiring I came on board before the casino opened as a supervisor and assisted the poker manager in training poker dealers. I was promoted to poker room manager three and a half years ago.”

Once in the driver’s seat, Thomas helped bring one of the country’s premier poker tours to the property.

“Our players look forward to the $1,100 MSPT every year,” she says excitedly. “It’s a great way for our local players to have the opportunity to satellite into a large tournament without having to travel. Because of our location we bring in players from multiple states and because of our amenities, many of them treat it like a mini vacation with their spouse.”

Of course there’s a lot of poker action to be had even when the MSPT isn’t in town.

“Along with running the MSPT every August, our poker room runs three different tournament events each year as
well as low limit weekly tournaments,” says Thomas. “We have the Fall Poker Series in November, our Poker Championship in March and our Summer Poker Challenge in June. I know every manager says that their poker room is friendly but ours truly is! We have such a great staff of supervisors, duals and dealers here at Grand Falls and we do our very best to take care of our player’s needs from getting you a Resort Club card to calling the Big Drop to order your dinner.”

While a strong player base from nearby Sioux Falls and experienced staff help make poker at Grand Falls a success, Thomas is also quick to credit the resort itself.

“Grand Falls Casino and Golf Resort has so much to offer our guests and it’s a great destination for a mini vacation,” she says. “You can relax at the spa or pool, play golf, shop in our boutique and then have dinner at Ruthie’s, Robert’s Buffet or the Big Drop.”

_{*This post originally appeared in MSPT Magazine and is republished here with permission from the MSPT.}

Tags: Renee Thomas

08-29-2020 16:53 UTC-5

"It's a Set"

Chad Holloway

Level 3 : 200/300, 300 ante

After the under-the-gun player limped, Minnesota's Steve Belland raised to 1,100 next to act. The player on his left then three-bet to 3,300 and action folded back to the UTG limper, who folded.

Belland called and then both players checked the flop.

When the appeared on the turn, Belland bet 1,500 and his opponent called to see the river.

Belland opted to bet again, this time 7,000, and his opponent thought for a bit before folding.

"It's a set," Belland claimed without showing his cards.

Player	Chips	Progress
Steve Belland	40,000 15,000	15,000

Tags: Steve Belland

08-29-2020 17:46 UTC-5

Stefan Exits After Kings Are Overthrown

Chad Holloway

Level 4 : 200/400, 400 ante

We missed the elimination of Sarah Stefan, who made the journey up from Chicago, but we managed to learn some details after the fact.

It happened when the under-the-gun player raised to 900 and a middle-position player called. Stefan, who was sitting with 14,000 on the button, then three-bet to 3,200. The player in the small blind flatted, the other two players called ,and it was four-way action to the flop.

Action checked to Stefan and she jammed for roughly 11,000. Only the original raiser called and the hands were turned up.

Sarah Stefan:
Opponent:

Stefan was way out in front, but after a turn bricked, a spiked on the river to give her opponent a winning set. With that, the cracked kings sent Stefan to the rail.

Player	Chips	Progress
Sarah Stefan	Busted

Tags: Sarah Stefan

08-29-2020 18:00 UTC-5

Join the Newly-Launched PokerNews Discord Server Today!

Chad Holloway

Level 5 : 300/500, 500 ante

We have exciting news for poker fans around the world, especially those following the 2020 World Series of Poker online bracelet events on both WSOP.com and GG Poker.

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Think of Discord as a house where different categories within the server are like a different room in the house. You can jump from one to the other to interact, gather information, or just have some fun.

We give you an area to share your bad beats, share your big wins, and talk about what is going on in poker today. We'll share links to live updates, highlight the biggest poker news, and offer special promotions.

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08-29-2020 18:31 UTC-5

Big Slick Does Not Do the Trick for Aweida

Chad Holloway

Level 5 : 300/500, 500 ante

Todd Sipple found himself all in for 28,400 and flipping for his tournament life against Colorado's Sammy Aweida.

Sammy Aweida:
Todd Sipple:

It was a classic flip and Sipple was just looking to hold to score the double. That's just what he did as the board ran out a safe .

Player	Chips	Progress
Todd Sipple	60,000
Sammy Aweida	24,000 -34,000	-34,000

Tags: Sammy Aweida

08-29-2020 18:44 UTC-5

Anderson Heads Back to Bemidji

Chad Holloway

Level 6 : 300/600, 600 ante

Eric Anderson, who many know for his seven years working for the MSPT, was just eliminated from the tournament.

It happened when he raised the cutoff to 2,000 holding the and the two players in the blinds called to see a flop. Both blinds checked, Anderson continued for 5,000, and only the player in the big blind called to see the turn.

The big blind then moved all in and Anderson called off his remaining 5,100. The player in the big blind simply said, "I'm on a draw," and tabled the .

While the diamond didn't come in, the on the river was just as good and just like that Anderson's Big Slick went down in flames.

Player	Chips	Progress
Eric Anderson	Busted

Tags: Eric Anderson

08-29-2020 19:02 UTC-5

Schneider Fades a Ton of Geller's Outs

Chad Holloway

Level 6 : 300/600, 600 ante

Greg Geller raised to 1,600 from early position and then called when Scott Schneider three-bet to 4,200 from middle position.

When the flop came down , Geller checked and Schneider bet 7,500. Geller responded by check-raising all in and Schneider called off for 39,400 total.

Scott Schneider:
Greg Geller:

Schneider had pocket rockets while Geller had a ton of outs. The latter had flopped both a flush and open-ended straight draw, and he had two pulls at it.

Fortunately for Schneider, neither the turn nor river helped Geller and his pocket pair held.

Player	Chips	Progress
Scott Schneider	89,000 89,000	89,000
Greg Geller	7,000 -18,000	-18,000

Tags: Greg Geller Scott Schneider

08-29-2020 20:05 UTC-5

Former MSPT Grand Falls Champ Doubles Up

Chad Holloway

Level 7 : 400/800, 800 ante

After a player in middle position raised to 2,000 and another called from the button, MSPT Season 8 Grand Falls champ Ahmed Taleb three-bet to 6,500, leaving himself just 8,000 behind in the small blind. The original raiser then four-bet it to 22,000 and the button player folded.

Ahmed Taleb:
Opponent:

Taleb had the best of it and shipped the double after the board ran out a clean .

Player	Chips	Progress
Ahmed Taleb	35,000 20,500	20,500

Tags: Ahmed Taleb