Corey Wick won his first Major Series of Poker: The Tour title by taking down the MSPT Michigan Poker State Championship hosted at FireKeepers Casino in Battle Creek on May 18. He topped over 3,000 opponents to win a huge prize worth $397,587 for the victory. That big score makes up the majority of the nearly half million in career tournament earnings for the resident of nearby Wisconsin.
“It feels amazing, this is my first live tournament win ever, it’s something that feels impossible, so to be able to take this down feels great,” Wick told reporters on the scene after the win. He continued, "It’d be nice to have the ‘2x’ next to my name but if this is the only one I win, I won’t complain.”
The $1,110 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament saw a huge turnout of 3,040 entries pump the total prize pool to $2,947,300 to nearly triple the $1 million guarantee. The 344 players that moved on from the three starting flights all made the money, locking up at least $2,209 in prize money for their efforts.
All 344 returned for the final day of play with the schedule calling for that sea of contenders to be narrowed down to a champion by the end of the day. A few of the notable players with MSPT history that made a run to the final 100 in the tournament included former MSPT Michigan State Poker Champion Travis Young (87th), MSPT Hall of Famers Patrick Steele (78th) and Josh Reichard (61st), and MSPT champions Sean Hinton (44th) and Chris Meyers (19th).
The final table began after 11:00 PM local time, and Wick was second in chips when cards got into the air. Dale Kirgis fell quickly in ninth place to get things moving, and Oliwer Sankiewicz was out in eighth place during the first hour of play at the final table as well.
MSPT regular D.J. Buckley was out next in seventh place to take his career earnings on the tour to more than half a million. Sung Kim was out next in sixth place, and all the while Wick steered clear of getting involved in the major knockout hands. He continued to play his stack in the shadows while World Series of Poker Circuit gold ring winner Jose Montes hit the rail in fifth place.
Wick then found his back-to-back double-ups, and scored his first knockout at the final table after 1:00 am when he eliminated Ryan Brown in fourth place. Wick was cruising after that, and he busted Travis McCullough in third place to take a 3:1 chip advantage into the final match against Ryan Eamon.
The last hand of the tournament arrived just before 3:00 AM when Eamon got all in for 12 million preflop with K
9. Wick called with A
3. The board came down 10
83
3Q, and Wick won the hand and the title with trip threes. Eamon earned $244,462 as the runner-up, growing his career haul to more than $418,000.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | Corey Wick | $397,587 | 1,200 |
| 2 | Ryan Eamon | $244,462 | 1,000 |
| 3 | Travis McCullough | $182,448 | 800 |
| 4 | Ryan Brown | $142,248 | 600 |
| 5 | Jose Ivan Montes | $108,085 | 500 |
| 6 | Sung Pil Kim | $85,408 | 400 |
| 7 | D.J. Buckley | $65,381 | 300 |
| 8 | Oliwer Sankiewicz | $50,656 | 200 |
| 9 | Dale Kirgis | $41,820 | 100 |
The MSPT tour will continue with another main event at the Ameristar East Chicago that will run from May 22-26.
Photo Credit: MSPT.
