Taylor Howard wins the Mid-States Poker Tour South Dakota State Championship of poker

2021 Mid-States Poker Tour South Dakota State Poker Championship 1 $, 100 purchase n non-limit hold'em main event attracted 585 entries, removing $ 100, 13 guaranteed to build a prize pool of 567,450. Ultimately, Taylor Howard won with his second MSPT title and first place award of $ 119, 165. The Iowa native had previously won MSPT Meskwaki back for 2018 for $ 89,939. Howard now has $ 282,614 in career live tournament earnings to his name.

In addition to the title and money, Howard also made 840 Card Player Player of the Year scores points as the champion of this event. It was his second POY Qualified Result of the Year, Fifth Place in $ 1,000 Buy-In Six-Max No-Limit Hold'em Tournament on bestbet Jacksonville Winter Open in January for 6 $, 356 and 120 points. As a result of these two results, Howard is currently in a three-way draw for a 43rd-place finish in 2021 POY a race sponsored by Global Poker.

This event consisted of two take-off flights, with the draw of Day 1A 265 while adding Day 1B another 320. The total field 585 was the largest major event ever with $ 1, $ 13 or higher buy-in at the Silverado-Franklin Casino in Deadwood, South Dakota. Just 82 players made it through Day 2, and Howard was in 22nd position at the start of the day. Among the 63 players who will take cash in this event, including a triple World Series of Poker gold bracelet winner Adam Friedman (29 th - $ 2, 724), three times MSPT champion Matt Kirby (29 th - $ 4, 142), 2018 MSPT Aaron Johnson Fighter of the Year (24 st - $ 4, 994) i POY race candidate Nicholas Pupillo ($ 18 - $ 5, 675).

Cy Church overtook the chip lead when the final table consisted of nine and Howard finished fourth. He scored his first two final table knockouts, beating Tim Dunse (9th - $ 10, 782) and Clint Lilienthal (8th - $, 616) to climb to third place on the leaderboard. Wesley Ismay was the next to collapse, earning $ 17.591 for a seventh place finish.

Howard secured his third final table elimination when his AQ defeated AJ John Nidhiry (6. - $ 22, 698). Michael Kinzer's run in this event ended with his Q 5 could not defeat A. 6 Church. Kinzer earned $ 30.075 in fifth place.

Howard doubled up by Paul Camby in a four-handed game, pushing all in with a set of jacks against his opponent's open straight draw. Howard's set held on and was at the forefront. Camby was eventually eliminated in fourth place when his A-8 bluff came up against Church's turn-based tours. Camby cashed in $ 53,772 as a result of his deep run at that event.

The classic situation in the preflop race made him place third. Church got his last chips from A. K. against Q Q John Schroer. A is missing from the blackboard Q 16 K. 8 and Schroer hit a set of queens to send the Church to the rail in third place ($ 53,340).

The heads-up started with Schroer in the lead, but Howard quickly turned things around, winning a sizable pot with a set of fives. By the time the final hand was dealt, Howard had a strong chip lead over Schroer. Howard raised to 600, 13 on button from A. AND and Schroer saved his big 5 blind 4 . The flop came 16 4 3 and Schroer called. Howard Wager 400,000 and Schroer called. On turn 2 it returned another check from Schroer. A bet of Howard 500, 13 and Schroer raised all in. Howard called with pocket aces and passed his opponent's pair and straight. 9 on the river it didn't help Schroer and he was eliminated in second place. He earned $ 73,201 as second place.

Here is the payout list and POY points awarded at the final table:

Photo of the winner via MSPT Twitter account.