The Mid States Poker Tour has operated at the front of the curve in the COVID-19 era of live poker. At least one scheduled MSPT event, however, had to be postponed due to state-mandated pandemic restrictions.
The MSPT Grand Falls Casino event originally scheduled for this past weekend will now take place from Jan. 22-24. MSPT made the postponement announcement on Twitter earlier this month:
“POSTPONEMENT: Due to recent increased state health restrictions, MSPT Grand Falls Casino event Dec. 18-20 has been postponed until Jan. 22-24, 2021. We apologize for any inconvenience & appreciate your understanding. Everyone stay safe & healthy, we’ll post revised schedule soon,” read a Dec. 10 tweet from the MSPT.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced statewide restrictions on indoor gatherings of more than 15 people on Nov. 16. Those restrictions were in place when the MSPT announced the postponement of its scheduled event at Grand Falls Casino, located in Larchwood, IA.
Gov. Reynolds has since announced the lifting of that 15-person indoor gathering limit. The Iowa governor put a new, more relaxed set of COVID-19 guidelines in place for Dec. 17 through Jan 8.
It’s too soon to tell where Iowa will be as far as pandemic restrictions in late January, when the rescheduled Grand Falls event is set to take place.
The MSPT ran the first pandemic era major live poker event in the U.S. at the Larchwood venue in August. The MSPT Grand Falls Casino series ran August 28-30, drawing 518 entries for its $1,100 Main Event.
That Main Event far surpassed its $150,000 guarantee, with the big turnout pushing the final prize pool to $500,960.
The latest on other 2021 MSPT events
The MSPT website shows that most of the tour’s scheduled events for the first three months of 2021 are still planning to run on schedule:
MSPT Event
Scheduled Dates
Status
The Venetian (Las Vegas, NV)
Jan. 1-3
On schedule
Golden Gates Casino (Black Hawk, CO)
Jan. 6-18
Cancelled
Grand Falls Casino (Larchwood, IA)
Jan. 22-24
On schedule
The Venetian (Las Vegas, NV)
Feb. 4-7
On schedule
Canterbury Park (Shakopee, MN)
Feb. 19-21
Pending
Grand Falls Casino (Larchwood, IA)
March 17-21
On schedule
Riverside Casino (Riverside, IA)
March 26-28
On schedule
The Golden Gates Casino event scheduled for January in Black Hawk, CO, is postponed. The Canterbury Park stop in Shakopee, MN is listed as “pending,” and it appears that the event (set for Feb. 19-21) is up in the air as of now.
The MSPT is still heavily promoting the Las Vegas event scheduled at the Venetian for the first weekend of 2021:
Poker.org will continue to update the situation for the MSPT scheduled 2021 live events.
