July 2013 Ante Up Magazine Article

July's article covers John "JohnnyGStaks" Hayes win of the Northern Lights Casino MSPT event.  It also covers Running Aces decision to make Erick Wright the ambassador and card-club pro for Running Aces Harness Park.  And despite published proof in a competing publication, Tristan Wilberg did NOT call Erick Wright the best poker player in Minnesota.  After all those would be fighting words!  Although I don't think anyone would argue that he is definitely one of the best.
http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/hayes-wins-northern-lights-poker-tournament-43k.htm

June 2013 Ante Up Magazine Articles

This month I had a couple of articles.  The main one is covering the Ante Up Poker Tour event at Running Aces.  http://www.anteupmagazine.com/tournaments/a-look-back-at-the-aupt-at-running-aces.htm.  For the full glossy article including picture, check out page 34 of the following link: http://www.anteupmagazine.com/issue/ante-up-magazine-june-2013.htm  or of the pdf http://www.anteupmagazine.com/rw/issues/pdf/June_2013.pdf.

The other article covers the MSPT event at Canterbury Park as well as the Ultimate Overlay tournament coming back to Canterbury Park. http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/younis-wins-poker-title-at-canterbury-park-in-minnesota.htm

April 2013 Ante Up Magazine Article

April's article covers the MSPT kickoff at Running aces.  Congratulations to David Gonia for the win!

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/gonia-takes-down-running-aces-poker-event-93k.htm

February 2013 Ante Up Magazine Article

This month's article covers the season finale of the MSPT at Canterbury Park won by the first Canadian James Gibson.  It also covers Dan Sun's win of the MSPT player of the year points race.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/gibson-is-first-canadian-to-win-mspt-event.htm

January 2013 Ante Up Magazine Article

This month's article covers the MSPT event Grand Casino Mille Lacs.  This was an impressive second win for Matt Kirby.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/kirby-wins-his-second-mid-states-poker-tour-title.htm

July 2012 Ante Up Magazine Article

This month I cover the Northern Lights MSPT event.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/kirby-dominates-northern-lights-poker-event.htm

MSPT: Recipe for Success

The Mid-States Poker Tour held the first event of season three at Running Aces Harness Park in February.  the MSPT events have been steadily gaining popularity and resulting in ever growing prize pools.  This season's events will have both a Day 1A and a Day 1B, and allow people to re-enter into day 1B if the played and busted from day 1A.

February's event attracted 311 entrants.  This was an record number for both the MSPT and Running Aces for $1,000 events.  I believe this is the record for all of Minnesota.  When standing next to Gregg Barktu, Running Aces poker room manager,watching the final table, he mentioned they may consider multiple day ones for some of their other events.

I also watch some of the live stream for the final table.  It more compelling than I would have guessed.  Maybe I was more interested than the average person because I had to cover it for the magazine, but I thought it was very entertaining.  Seeing the hole cards made it much more interesting, and Bryan Mileski gave audio commentary to fill in information about stack sizes, blinds and antes.

Running Aces also put the stream on their big screen in the card room.  I heard many people in the card room talking about the the final table.  Many people assumed that repeat powerhouse Erick Wright would take down the final table, but in the end Rodger Johnson won the RF Moeller Diamond Championship Bracelet and $79,185.

Mileski deserves a big congratulations for the continued success of the MSPT.

Click here for more information about February's event.

February 2012 Ante Up Magazine Article

I'm suppose to keep articles under 250 words, so they will be short and sweet from now on.  This month I cover the the MSPT Season 2 finale, the POY winner, and HPT will host an event at Canterbury Park in April.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/vang-captures-mid-states-poker-tour-finale.htm

January 2012 Ante Up Magazine Article

This month I interview Bryan Mileski of the Mid-States Poker Tour.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/surma-wins-record-setting-mspt-event.htm