This past weekend, the Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) $1,110 Main Event at Bally’s Black Hawk in Colorado attracted 585 entrants over three starting flights. On Sunday’s Day 2, Eric Maier of Littleton emerged victorious to claim a $106,858 top prize and his first MSPT title.
Maier previously final tabled the MSPT Season 7 stop at Milwaukee’s Potawatomi Casino for $14,416, and also finished fourth in Season 8’s $360 Regional Event at Black Hawk’s Golden Gates Casino, good for $21,019.
According to the Hendon Mob, Maier had $161,339 in live tournament earnings before the victory with a previous career-best of $26,513 for finishing third in the 2017 Colorado Poker Championship Event #1: $400 NLH Kick Off.
MSPT Bally’s Black Hawk Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eric Maier | Littleton, Colorado | $106,858 |
| 2 | Behooz Hagimaleki | Denver, Colorado | $85,000 |
| 3 | James Lee | Eagle, Colorado | $53,199 |
| 4 | Igor Leshchinskiy | Castle Rock, Colorado | $39,617 |
| 5 | Larry Carillo | Las Vegas, Nevada | $29,995 |
| 6 | Hussein Hameed | Aurora, Colorado | $22,638 |
| 7 | Don Sarubbi | Melrose Park, Illinois | $17,544 |
| 8 | Albert Hart | Centennial, Colorado | $13,581 |
| 9 | Joel Verbeck | Denver, Colorado | $10,753 |
Others to cash the tournament were Deluvina Gries (10th – $8,489), Carlos Correa (13th – $6,791), David Maldonado (15th – $6,791), Jason Vanstrom (19th – $4,980), Zach Harris (25th – $3,509), WSOP bracelet winner Adrian Buckley (28th – $2,717), Mark Darner (40th – $2,434), Chris Tryba (44th – $2,434), and Cameron Bazley (60th – $2,150).
Click here to learn about this weekend’s MSPT Riverside
Two MSPT Hall of Famers Capture WSOP Bracelets
The 2022 World Series of Poker (WSOP) was kind to a pair of players who cut their chops on the MSPT; in fact, both are part of the MSPT Hall of Fame, which is currently comprised of just eight members.
Rich Alsup was inducted in 2018 and is the MSPT’s all-time money leader with $840,226 in career tour earnings, which includes a record 13 top-ten finishes in the Main Event. Alsup is a household name in Midwest poker circles, and this summer he broke out in an even bigger way by capturing his first WSOP gold bracelet.
He topped a 2,820-entry field to win Event #80: $800 No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack for $272,065. The 38-year-old Alsup wasn’t even planning on playing the tournament as he wanted to play the mystery bounty at the Wynn, but Rob Wazwaz convinced Alsup to play by saying, “Come play with the fish.”
Event #82: $800 No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Richard Alsup | United States | $272,065 |
| 2 | Gary Whitehead | United Kingdom | $168,093 |
| 3 | Ari Engel | Canada | $126,233 |
| 4 | Marc Macdonnell | Ireland | $95,487 |
| 5 | Ryan Jaworski | United States | $72,759 |
| 6 | Artem Metalidi | Ukraine | $55,849 |
| 7 | Patrick Truong | United States | $43,188 |
| 8 | Frederich Brown | United States | $33,648 |
| 9 | Donny Casho | United States | $26,413 |
Speaking of Wazwaz, earlier in the series he captured his first gold bracelet as well. It happened in Event #25: $800 No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack, a tournament that attracted 4,062 entrants.
Wazwaz, who was inducted into the MSPT Hall of Fame in 2021, earned $358,346 for the victory.
”It was my third final table, but first for a long time,” Wazwaz told PokerNews. “Back then I wasn’t as experienced, I didn’t play them right when I got deep. But I’ve come a long way, and my dream was to come out here and win a bracelet”.
Wazwaz added, ”I ran so pure, so pure, like my whole life of playing tournaments, this was the purest tournament I’ve ever ran in my entire life”.
Event #25: $800 No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rajaee “Rob” Wazwaz | United States | $358,346 |
| 2 | Robert Crow | United States | $221,399 |
| 3 | Terence Reid | United States | $166,011 |
| 4 | Sean Legendre | United States | $125,371 |
| 5 | Dov Markowich | Canada | $95,363 |
| 6 | Maxime Duhamel | Canada | $73,064 |
| 7 | Abhinav Iyer | India | $56,388 |
| 8 | Sebastien Clot | France | $43,839 |
| 9 | Liran Betito | Israel | $34,336 |
Click here to read more about Wazwaz’s bracelet win!
Established in 2017, the MSPT Hall of Fame was established to recognize those individuals on the tour who have shown superior skill and achieved specific long-term accomplishments.
The criteria to earn a spot on the MSPT Hall of Fame is as follows:
- Achieve a minimum of 25 MSPT Main Event Cashes and 1 MSPT Win OR 1 MSPT Player of the Year; or
- Achieve a minimum of 10 MSPT Main Event Final Tables and 1 MSPT Win OR 1 MSPT Player of the Year
| Year | Inductee |
|---|---|
| 2022 | Matt Kirby |
| 2021 | Rob Wazwaz |
| 2021 | Jason Seitz |
| 2020 | Blake Bohn |
| 2020 | Pat Steele |
| 2019 | Mark Hodge |
| 2018 | Aaron Johnson |
| 2018 | Rich Alsup |
| 2018 | Kou Vang |
Executive Editor U.S.
Executive Editor US, PokerNews Podcast co-host & 2013 WSOP Bracelet Winner.