The Mid-States Poker Tour Grand Falls Main Event, held at Grand Falls Casino Resort in Larchwood, Iowa, was completed a few hours ago with poker player Alan Curl from Belle Fourche, South Dakota topping the field to capture the amount of $64,655 of the prize pool and the tournament trophy.
The MSPT Grand Falls Main Event kicked off on Friday, August 14, and attracted a total of 238 entries. Day 2, the tournament’s last one, started with 54 players returning. Only the top 27 finishers were paid, with the payouts starting from $2,077.
Curl returned for the Main Event’s final day as the chip leader and managed to maintain his chip lead for the greater part of the day. The ten-handed final table started with Chris Burke holding the majority of chips with a total of 835,000. He was followed by the eventual champion with 806,000 and Jon Maras with 751,000.
Chuck Costanzo was the first to leave the final table. He was eliminated in 10th place by Maras. The player took home the amount of $3,001 for his efforts. Dan Hendrickson was the next to go. His 9th place in the event secured him with $4,617.
John Streese finished 8th after he could not make it against Kim Rasmussen. His share of the prize pool amounted to $6,925. Brian Davis then busted Ryan Skluzak in 7th place. Skluzak’s payout amounted to $9,234.
Davis himself was the next to go. He was paid $11,543 for his 6th place in the tournament. Sam De Silva was eliminated in 5th place for $13,851. Maras then busted Burke in 4th place. The latter received $17,776 for his performance. And it was Rasmussen who was eliminated in 3rd place and this set the heads-up play between Curl and Maras. His third-place finish secured him with $21,931.
The heads-up match began with Curl as the chip leader with a total of 2,825,000 against his opponent’s stack of 1,925,000 chips. It took less than an hour for the winner to be determined. The last hand in play occurred in Level 26. The board ran out [9h][10c][6s][6h][Qc]. On the river, Maras checked and Curl moved all in. His opponent called and tabled [5h][5s] against Curl’s [As][Ah].
Maras had to content himself with the runner-up finish and the amount of $38,091 of the entire prize pool.
The MSPT’s next stop is Tropicana Evansville in Evansville, Indiana. The tournament has already started and will run through August 23, when the Main Event with a guaranteed prize pool of $250,000 is to be completed.
