Paul Jain and Nick Pupillo Hot On Howard Dion's Tail as 36 Players Survive Day 1a
For the third time, the Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) has partnered with Silverado-Franklin Casino for the 2021 MSPT South Dakota State Poker Championship, a tournament that dates back to 2011 and if anyone predicted that the Day 1a turnout at Deadwood was going to compete with the record-breaking prize pool in state history in May of 2019, they were right. The first of two starting flights closed with 265 entries, which breezed past the 258 total entries back in May of 2019.
After 15 Levels, just 36 players bagged and tagged with Howard Dion and his stack of 476,000 leading the way. Hot on Dion's tail were Paul Jain and Nick Pupillo who both ended the tournament with 468,000. Rounding out the top five big stacks were Paul Camby (392,000), and Whitney Bell (268,000).
Others to punch their tickets to Day 2 were Matthew Mich (264,000), Taylor Howard (245,000), Jason Crews (209,000), DJ Buckley (158,000), Blake Whittington (131,000), and Dave Sanderson (124,000).
Of course, not everyone was fortunate enough to make it through the night. Among those to fire and fall in Friday’s flight were three-time WSOP bracelet winner and MSPT JACK Cleveland champ Adam Friedman, Kyna England, along with MSPT Champion's Matt Kirby, Eric Atchison and 2018 MSPT Player of the Year Aaron Johnson.
Day 1b will get underway at 3 p.m. on Saturday. Late registration and re-entries will remain open through Level 12 (approximately 11:40 p.m.). PokerNews will be on hand to capture all the action, so be sure to join us then.