The Fellas
- Puddnhead
- 4 days ago
- 8 min read
I was trying to decide between the Irish Poker Open and the Aussie Millions. Ultimately I decided on... Iowa.
I'm a provisional pro poker player now. But I consider myself a minor league player in the world of professional poker.
This year I'm limiting travel expenses and playing the softest tournaments. I want to prove that I can consistently beat these fields before I move up in stakes. So Iowa.
My first stop was Grand Falls just across the border from South Dakota. This is a smaller MSPT stop. I played both starting flights of their Main Event and I busted shortly after late reg both days.
A couple weeks later I was standing in the lobby of an Iowa City Super 8 waiting for someone who worked there. The front door was unlocked and no one was at the front desk. Not the most secure hotel.
Eventually somebody showed up but my room was not ready. I was miffed because Day 1A of the Riverside MSPT was already underway. But oh well, I waited.
When my room was ready I learned they had no elevator. So I carried my luggage up the stairs, which were carpeted and covered in stains. The hallways smelled like stale cigarette smoke.
This is life in the minor leagues.
I arrived for the 300/500 level and immediately tripled up when I flopped a set, turned a boat, and got called in two spots. At the 300/600 level I scored another KO 2 pair vs top pair. 400/800 I won a couple nice pots with AA and QQ. 500/1000 Jake Long showed up and I quickly dispatched him KK vs a flush draw.
After a couple hours of play I was up to 7 starting stacks and felt like I could do no wrong. Then I did very wrong:
That hand rattled me. I knew it was a blunder. I played some shaky hands after that. Then Umut Ozturk showed up to my table and I doubled him up twice. So much for my big stack.
Post late-reg I was an average stack trending down and by the time we reached the bubble I was a very small stack indeed. But on the stone bubble a shorter stack jammed and I woke up with AA in the BB for the KO to double and burst the bubble. A baby bag on one bullet. That doesn't sound like me!
In the brief moments we had played together on Day 1A, Jake Long had invited me to join a last longer draft pool he was hosting Friday morning.
Jake was the 2025 MSPT player of the year. You'll find him at all the MSPT stops sipping a Corona and cracking jokes. How many have you had Jake? "Two...many!"
For our last longer pool the idea was that you pick 5 players and if one of them for instance makes the final table all the other teams owe you $100. There were several other side bets.
With my first pick I took Josh Reichard, who had already bagged a big stack and was drafting a team himself. Josh is the MSPT GOAT leader with 2 main event wins and 13 top ten finishes.
I filled out the rest of my team with Robby Wazwaz, Richie Alsup, John Reading, and Wes Cannon.
One of the other teams drafting was co-managed by DJ Buckley, another MSPT legend. DJ has cashed 85 MSPT Main Events, more than anyone else. DJ told me he had an extra room at Riverside that I could have for free. So after we drafted he took me over to registration and got me a key for the room. It had a glass-walled shower so you could monitor the parking lot while cleansing. It was so much nicer than my Super 8!
DJ's co-manager for his last longer team was Umut Ozturk. Umut is an immigration lawyer who I met many years ago playing the $200 dailies at our local card rooms. I didn't think his game was anything special. Then out of nowhere he started winning everything. Fast forward a few years and now he's a 3-time MSPT Player of the Year with 18 Main Event top 10 finishes. He still describes himself as a recreational poker player but I don't think anyone's buying it anymore.
Friday night he invited me and a few others to dinner at the casino steak house. I heard all the gossip about the future of no limit holdem and sports betting in Minnesota. The food was delicious and Umut paid for everything.
After dinner I went back up to my room and checked the Day 1B updates online only to see that Umut had late regged and was going for a 2nd bag. So I thought what the hell I'll do it too!
I max late regged and folded for an orbit before getting it in AJs < AQo to bust.
1B was cruel to all my horses in the last longer pool too. Nobody bagged.
Saturday morning I was eating breakfast at the casino buffet when Umut told our last longer text group that he had hopped in a main event satellite. I had nothing going on so I thought what the hell I'll follow Umut again.
I max late-regged the satty and played for about 35 minutes before reaching the landmark. It was easier than expected. Lots of min-raise and everyone folds. I won a couple all ins and that was enough.
When I went to register 1C Umut was working the MSPT merch booth and offered me a free hoodie. I wasn't sure if I should go for medium or large. So Umut said take one of each. Sheesh. I told him they're never going to let him work the merch booth again.
I joined the 1C field a few levels into the day. Objectively going for a 2nd bag in this scenario is pretty dumb and -EV. You're better off just playing Day 2 with your short stack and saving your money for the next tournament where you don't already have a bag.
But I was having a good time. This didn't feel like work. John Reading was sitting next to me for much of the day and we had many talks about poker. I also tried and failed to bluff him a couple times:
1C treated me better than 1B and I found my way to a tiny bag that was good for a min cash and right around breakeven on the double bag endeavor. Plus a couple hoodies.
The morning of Day 2 I was doing a lap around the outside of the casino when I ran into Wes Cannon who was also wandering aimlessly in some corner of the parking lot. "Too early to just stand around inside." I think going for walks before tournaments and on breaks is a pretty good way to clear your head. Apparently I'm not alone in that belief.
I started off Day 2 as one of the shortest stacks in the field. Early on I blinded down to 7bb before it folded it me in the SB with J8o. I went all in and got called by Q8s. I had one foot out the door but rivered a straight to survive.
The next few hours I was finding spots here and there to chip up but I never had an above average stack. When we got down to 3 tables I had a chance to join the chip leaders but I turned it down:
From two tables on I wrote down 27 hands to review. I usually only write down one or two an hour. But this deep in a large field tournament everything gets more complex. It's hard to analyze a spot without knowing the stacks of everyone at your table and also the shortest stacks at the other table.
On the final table bubble I was a middling stack and playing really tight. I blinded back down to 12bb but right before we made the final table I got it in with bottom set vs a combo draw and held to double back up to chip average.
This was an absolutely loaded final table. Josh Reichard, Nick Barksdale, and Kou Vang had a combined 8 MSPT Championships under their belts. Wes has a poker podcast and I write a poker blog. Surely that also counts for something.
The most critical hand of the final table didn't even involve me but it made me a lot of money:
The two chip leaders had collided and Josh was out! After that Wes had a massive chip lead and the rest of us were in ICM jail trying to ladder up and not make any huge blunders.
For hours at the final table I was focused on laddering to $20,000. So when Wes offered an ICM chop 5-handed that gave me $61,000 it was pretty hard for me to turn down.
I would have liked to fight for the trophy but my big goal for 2026 is just to have a winning year in poker. $61k plus the side bet money (thanks Wes!) felt like a pretty good result so I took the chop.
After I got my money from the cashier I ventured into the casino and started pounding beers with Reichards and various MSPT staff and regs.
There was some drama about the last longer pool. Josh and Jake don't consider chops as victories so typically wouldn't pay out the $300 each for Wes winning the tournament. That makes a lot of sense to me because you wouldn't want a side bet to influence the outcome of the tournament. But they hadn't clarified that beforehand so it did impact my decision to accept the chop. Josh said they should just pay it anyway because the rule wasn't clear. I countered how about you pay me $200 each instead and that seemed like a good compromise.
I came away from that dispute gaining a lot of respect for Josh. He's famous for refusing to collude to feed Jesse Yaginuma the bracelet in the 2025 Milly Maker when they were 3-handed and Jesse had a deal with the WPT that would give him an additional $1 million if he won the bracelet. Josh has gambling integrity.
In the pit I shot the shit with the other Reichards. Josh, Charlie, and "Pops" all cashed this main event and ran deep. I was listening to a final table story from Pops when Jake fetched me to settle the last longer bet. But I want to hear the end of this story! "Don't worry, he'll still be talking when you get back."
Most of my poker journey has been a solo quest. At this stop though I really enjoyed hanging out with the fellas.
A short while later I was driving to my next minor league poker stop in Cincinnati, listening to Wes break down hands from his first MSPT Championship on the Suited Kings podcast.
He doesn't write any of his hands down and somehow remembers them anyway. It's incredible to me. I forget the exact board within seconds after the hand completes. That's why I write them down.
Wes has been a poker bud since I started playing more seriously a few years ago and I couldn't be happier for him on his win. Congratulations Wes!
