Nicholas Smith Wins MSPT Grand Falls Main Event

Nicholas Smith is enjoying the largest poker score of his career thanks to winning the MSPT Grand Falls Main Event. Smith came out on top of a 532-strong field at the Grand Falls Casino in South Dakota and banked $110,633.

Smith hails from Fishers, Indiana, and only had two live results before this victory. He won a $140 nightly tournament at Aria, Las Vegas, in January 2019 for $2,118. A sixth-place finish in a $240 tournament, also at Aria Las Vegas, saw Smith collect $1,242. Now he has a $110,633 prize and the MSPT Grand Falls Main Event title on his resume.

MSPT Grand Falls Main Event Final Table Results

Place	Player	Prize
1	Nicholas Smith	$110,633
2	Kenneth Johnson	$67,971
3	Larry Wagner	$48,984
4	Graham Beynon	$37,047
5	Tyler Kolness	$27,785
6	Joe Osterbauer	$21,096
7	Jason Crews	$16,465
8	Taylor Howard	$12,864
9	Saad Ghanem	$9,776

Day 2 of the $1,100 MSPT Grand Falls Main Event started with 73 players retaking their seats. Smith’s 395,000 chips placed him fourth in the chip counts.

Only 54 players receive a slice of the prize pool, so spare a thought for 55th place finisher John Menapace. He three-bet all-in with Ad-Js only to run into the Ac-Ad of Frank Kapaun. Menapace burst the money bubble, while Kapaun went on to finish 29th for $2,779.

The prize money increased to at least $9,776 at the nine-handed final table. Saad Ghanem received this sum after open-shoving for a little under three big blinds with Ad-Ah. Graham Benyon called from the big blind with Jh-Th, and the board ran Td-2c-Jc-8s-4h.

Ghanen’s seat had not gone cold when the MSPT Grand Falls Main Event lost another player. Tyler Howard raised all-in for 7.5 big blinds with Kc-Qs, and Tyler Kolness called with the dominating Ah-Ks. The five community cards ran 5c-Ts-Tc-7c-Ks to resign Howard to an eighth-place finish.

Smith Claims His First Final Table Scalp

Smith got lucky in a hand with Jason Crews and claimed his first final table scalp. Crews looked set to double up when he was all-in with Th-8h versus Smith’s As-Jd on an 8d-Td-4s-Jd board. However, the Ac river improved Smith to a better two pair, and Crews crashed out.

Sixth place and $21,096 went to Joe Osterbauer. He looked down at Ah-4h and decided to raise all-in for 3.6 big blinds. Unfortunately, Smith held Qc-Qd in the cutoff. Osterbauer picked up some outs on the turn of the Td-7c-3h-9h-Js board but ultimately missed.

Smith was on a heater and was responsible for another MSPT Grand Falls Main Event casualty. Benyon raised to 180,000 on the button, Kolness three-bet all-in for 460,000 in the small blind, only for Smith to come over the top to isolate him; Benyon ducked out of the way. Kolness flipped over Kh-Jh and needed help to beat Smith’s Ad-Jc. Help never arrived as the community cards fell 8c-3d-4c-4h-3c.

Kenneth Johnson won a massive coinflip during the 50,000/100,000/20,000a level. He raised to 300,000 with Tc-Td, and Benyon moved all-in for 1,945,000 with As-Kc. Johnson called and won the hand courtesy of the 8s-7d-5d-Th-6s board.

Johnson Takes Huge Chip Lead Into Heads-up

The advantage was firmly with Johnson going into heads-up because he busted Larry Wagner in third-place. There was 1,600,000 already in the pot on the 2c-Kc-6d-Ad board. Johnson led for 400,000 and called when Wagner committed his 1,090,000 stack. It was 3h-3c for Wagner and 9c-6h for Johnson. The 2d river busted Wagner in third for $48,984.

Johnson had one hand on the MSPT Grand Falls Main Event trophy thanks to his 9,100,000 to 4,200,000 chip lead over Smith. However, Smith had other ideas and was about to spoil the party.

Smith doubled when his second pair held against Johnson’s flush draw. The contest ended soon after.

Johnson raised to 400,000 before calling off his stack when Smith re-raised all-in. Smith showed Ac-Td, and Johnson the dominated Ah-6d. Smith improved to trip tens on the 9s-5d-Ts-8s-Tc board to beat Johnson’s ace-rag and win the MSPT Grand Falls Main Event.

Brad Johnson

You name the game, and you can bet your bottom dollar that Brad has either played it or placed a wager on it! Brad calls himself a natural gambler, and someone who gains as much enjoyment from writing about the crazy game of poker as he does playing it.

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