After a record-setting $375,800 prize pool for the final event of Season 3 at Canterbury Park, the PokerNews Mid-States Poker Tour will kick off Season 4 at Running Aces Harness Park in Minnesota. The first event of Season 4 runs from Feb. 9 through Feb. 17, 2013, and Running Aces expects a huge turnout.

The MSPT has grown quickly and has already awarded more than $4 million in its first three seasons. With 14 events in six states on the calendar (and several more potential stops in the works), and guarantees ranging from $100,000 to $300,000, the tour will likely give out more than $3 million in Season 4 alone. With multiple new venues, and the best venues from previous seasons, this looks like a great year for the tour to expand to new areas while maintaining a presence in places where it has already built a following.

“I’m excited to travel with the tour this year and see some new places,” said MSPT ambassador Chris “Fox” Wallace about the upcoming season. “The MSPT brought great structures to Minnesota, and then on to Iowa and other states, and now we are bringing the same player friendly blind levels to new states. Having the MSPT in Minnesota changed everything here, and the local poker rooms all offer the great structures that players have come to expect after playing MSPT events, and I’m sure we can do the same thing for the new places we visit.”

The tour will stop in Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, with eight different venues announced so far. Some of the finest poker rooms in the central U.S. are part of the tour.

Feb 9-17, 2013: Running Aces Harness Park in Forest Lake, Minnesota, will host the first event of the season, with an expected field of well over 300 and an excellent selection of cash games and an incredible staff.

March 3-10, 2013: The MSPT will visit FireKeepers Casino in Battle Creek, Michigan for the first time. Seating will be limited for this event, with three starting flights, so get your seat early to avoid being left out. Michigan is the former home of MSPT ambassador Chris “Fox” Wallace, who expects a strong field and a great event from the best poker room in the state.

March 7-17, 2013: Downstream Casino and Resort in Quapaw, Oklahoma, enjoyed great success in Season 3, and looks to be setting up as a permanent stop on the schedule. The beautiful casino hotel, professionally run poker room, and southern hospitality, make this a stop well worth the drive, with players coming in from all over the Midwest, as well as the west coast and the entire south.

March 16-24, 2013: Ho-Chunk Gaming in Baraboo, Wisconsin, had so much fun last year that it has signed on for two events this season! Located in the Wisconsin Dells, Ho-Chunk is fun for the whole family and offers a player-friendly environment. You won’t find players who are more fun to play and have a drink with than Mark “PokerHo” Kroon and the always-entertaining Reggie Mims.

March 16-24, 2013: The Meskwaki Bingo Casino Hotel in Tama, Iowa, is one of the biggest stops on the MSPT. This stop drove nearly $1 million in prize money during the 2012 season, with a $300,000 guaranteed prize pool at every MSPT Meskwaki event. This event is becoming known for its huge fields and soft players, though pros like Jamie Gold, Kevin “BelowAbove” Saul, Amanda Musumeci, and others were seen at Meskwaki last season.

April 20-28, 2013: The MSPT returns to Canterbury Park expecting a massive field after its record-setting event last season where retired truck driver James Gibson won over $95,000 after surviving a field of 376. This season’s event at Canterbury is a chance for the tour to break 400 players, as well as the six-figure mark for first place. Players are expected to travel from around the Midwest to join the hunt for the bracelet and cash.

May 11-19, 2013: Northern Lights Casino in Walker, Minnesota, is the northernmost stop on the tour, and also a favorite among players who follow the tour. A beautiful resort town on a lake in May? With friendly staff and a relaxing lake shore atmosphere, many players see this event as a vacation where they can win thousands of dollars in between kicking back on the balcony and watching the waves.

July 20-28, 2013: After a summer break, the MSPT returns to Tama, Iowa, for another $300,000 guaranteed event at Meskwaki Bingo Casino Hotel.

August 10-18, 2013: The Grand Falls Casino Resort in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, welcomes the MSPT back after a fantastic inaugural event last season. Players loved this stop last year, with great staff, beautiful rooms, and a nice turnout, Grand Falls has everything a poker player could want, including an MSPT event.

August 17-25, 2013: By the time the MSPT rolls back into FireKeepers, the new event center will be finished and potential unlimited seating should mean a huge field. We’ll see you in Battle Creek this summer.

Aug. 30 – Sept. 8, 2013:The MSPT is back at the Downstream Casino Resort in Quapaw, Oklahoma for another great event, the second of the season.

Oct. 26 – Nov. 3, 2013: The third visit to Meskwaki in Tama, Iowa, and the third $300,000 guarantee. The MSPT may give out a million dollars this year at a single venue!

Nov. 2-10, 2013: Back at Ho-Chunk in the Wisconsin Dells, the MSPT looks forward to a venue, and players, that can turn a poker tournament into a party.

Nov. 30 – Dec. 8, 2013: Once again Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minnesota, hosts the final event of the season, and every MSPT season ends with a bang! The huge prize pool from Canterbury Park makes for a great holiday for a few skilled players.

About the PokerNews MSPT

The PokerNews Mid-States Poker Tour is the fastest growing poker tour in America, giving away more than $4 million in its first three years. Known for excellent structures, multiple starting days, and large numbers of qualifiers, these $1,100 buy-in events draw larger and larger fields at every stop. Players who visit an event quickly become loyal regulars and MSPT family, traveling to tour stops in other states. Many players credit the MSPT with bringing better structures to the Midwest and offering a player friendly tournament series with big prize pools.

For more information, and a complete schedule, visit MSPTPoker.com.

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Now that the holiday season has come and gone, Daniel Negreanu and many other poker pros are gearing up for another trip to the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. We’re covering that story, plus a remarkable accomplishment by Alex Wice at PokerStars, in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.

In Case You Missed It:

Ben “Sauce123” Sulsky was online poker’s biggest cash game winner in 2012. Sulsky won more than $3.5 million, besting top pros like Jens “Jeans89” Kyllönen, Ben “Ben86” Tollerene and Phil “MrSweets28” Galfond to earn the honor.

Marvin Rettenmaier climbed past Dan Smith into the top spot of the Global Poker Index. What pushed the German pro into the lead? Mickey Doft takes a look at the major changes in this week’s GPI rankings.

Kid Poker’s First Rant of 2013

Before embarking on his trip to the Bahamas for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure this week, Daniel Negreanu fired up his webcam Wednesday to record a video blog entitled Happy New Year Rant!

Negreanu opened the blog by discussing poker’s “outcasts” and how he’s vowed to get some of them back on track. Last week, Negreanu commended one of poker’s famous pariahs, Sorel Mizzi, for a blog he wrote about his infamous past. We’ll touch on Mizzi later in this Nightly Turbo. Another player Daniel mentioned was Howard Lederer. However, as you’d expect, Negreanu won’t be reaching out to his nemesis anytime soon.

Kid Poker also discussed his love life and how his ex-wife helped him become a better person. Despite not making it as a couple, Negreanu has remained friends with his ex, saying that she helped him “become a better man.”

Negreanu missed an easy segue to mention his upcoming appearance on Millionaire Matchmaker, a reality show on the Bravo Network which pairs millionaires with compatible gold diggers partners. Negreanu recently tweeted a teaser video for the show, including an awkward scene in which he speaks with an astrologer about marriage.

Here’s the latest edition of Negreanu’s Rant:

Wice Wins the Race

We’re only three days into 2013, but the race to become the first SuperNova Elite on PokerStars is already on.

Last month, PokerStars posted a promotional competition to see who can reach Supernova and Supernova Elite status first in the New Year. The first player to reach 100,000 VPP would earn Supernova status and a few prizes, including 100,000 FPP to use in the VIP Store. The winner would also get his face stamped in the 2013 PokerStars Collectible Card Deck along with Team PokerStars Pros and other notable live and online PokerStars players.

Amazingly, after just 39 hours and 25 minutes, poker pro Alex “AWice” Wice was congratulated as the first player to earn 100,000 VPPs in 2013 a tight race against “MouldyOnions.” The two players registered for nearly every high-stakes hyper turbo sit-and-go on PokerStars after the turn of the New Year, and Wice showed slightly more endurance to reach the finish line first.

PokerStars VIP Manager Steve Day revealed the final tally on the TwoPlusTwo forums Wednesday afternoon:

100,001.88 AWice

94,720.82 MouldyOnions

Congratulations to Alex Wice, first player to 100,000 VPPs in 2013!

Total time taken: 39 hours 25 minutes.

Wice posted the following on TwoPlusTwo after it was all over:

I want to give a few details of what happened over the last couple of days.

Alex Wice

First, the sprint finish. Basically, in order to catch up to MouldyOnions at the very end, I had to play $60 hypers as well. This was pretty tough and I ended up 50 tabling. If you look at PS steve updates I was getting 6k vpp an hour. This is completely insane, if you cough you are done. (It cannot be compared to tabling hypers in the past because PS has changed the time to act and other rules so it is much faster than it used to be.) Also, I think I had a log file thing too, or something similar. I lagged out of 30 tables with 2k vpp to go. I was very flustered, lol.

In general, for high-count tabling there is extreme stress induced on the body, I think my practice with exercise before hand has helped me sleep and play more comfortably (and feel less anxiety) even though I am still getting used to it. I probably sweated an entire bucket through my hands over the last couple of days – talcum powder, gloves, and many towels didn’t help.

I am happy for this challenge and for MouldyOnions in particular because it allowed me to test myself at the hardest level and rise to the challenge. If you had asked me 2 days ago when I would get SN, I would never have guessed now. Also if no one was close to getting first SN, neither of us would have played as hard.

At this pace, Wice would reach SuperNova Elite status within two weeks. That would smash the record set last year by Andrew “azntracker” Li, who reached Supernova Elite in just two months. The mark was previously held by Team PokerStars Online’s George “Jorg95″ Lind, who hit the landmark in about 11 weeks in 2010.

Read the full thread at TwoPlusTwo.com.

Mizzi Turning a Corner?

Sorel Mizzi has vowed to start a new chapter in his life in 2013, taking responsibility for his past and mentally working through everything to better himself, his career, and his future. Facing many hardships in the past, Mizzi was accused of cheating on more than one occasion during his career as a poker pro.

Mizzi received a life ban on Full Tilt Poker in late 2007 after an investigation concluded that Chris ‘BluffMagCV’ Vaughn sold his account to Mizzi with three tables left in the Sunday $1 Million Guaranteed tournament. Mizzi went on to win the event under Vaughn’s name, and Vaughn was later disqualified from the tournament. Vaughn had his winnings seized and both players were banned for life from the site.

Sorel Mizzi

Then, in late 2008, PokerStars banned access to Mizzi’s “zangbezan24″ account for three months after he violated PokerStars’ Term of Service. Mizzi was accused of handing off his tournament seat to a different player, resulting in disqualification and an initial ban of six months, which was then reduced to just three.

Mizzi began mending some of his negative reputation back in 2010 by earning the title of Bluff Magazine Player of the Year, only to fall back into scandal in early 2011. Just a few days after Full Tilt Poker allowed for Mizzi’s account to be reinstated after a two-and-a-half year ban, a cheating accusation surfaced on the TwoPlusTwo poker forums. Shaun Deeb posted details of an incident in which Mizzi cheated John Racener out of thousands of dollars playing Chinese Poker during the PCA in January.

Now, Sorel Mizzi has taken to his blog to start anew by admitting to his mistakes and vowing to change his perception of himself and others. “I’m committed to using my experiences to redefine my values and strengthen my character,” Mizzi wrote. “I’ve woken up, and I’m ready to be the hero in my own movie. Having integrity, being honorable, loving and passionate is no longer a struggle; it’s a way of life and a state of being.”

His honest and heartfelt blog has come with much praise from other players who have given him words of encouragement and admiration for being bold, honest and mature. Brian Rast posted a comment following his blog, saying, “I enjoyed reading this. I am glad to see you growing, maturing, and dealing with these kind of problems. Just remember that change is a process, it’s not instantaneous. I miss you and hope everything’s well.”

World Series of Poker Media Director Nolan Dalla also lent support, commenting, “This is a refreshing perspective. Unfortunately poker is filled with one-dimensional self-centered people. When I read something like this it renews my hope for the future.”

Mizzi ended his blog by announcing a New Year’s resolution of maintaining the “positivity, love and acceptance of the child I once was, no matter the obstacle.”

Check out his full blog at SorelMizzi.ca.

Galen Goes to School

On Thursday, 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure champion Galen Hall announced via Twitter that he won’t be traveling to the Bahamas for this year’s popular poker festival. Hall said he’ll be skipping the trip to Atlantis for the first time in three years because he’s starting his last two quarters of business school on Monday.

After winning the Main Event in 2011 for $2.3 million, Hall made another big splash last year by taking third in the $100,000 buy-in Super High Roller for $470,000. While he’s earned more than $2.8 million during his two trips to Atlantis, Hall is probably best remembered for the incredible laydown he made during heads-up play against Chris Oliver in the 2011 Main Event.

In case you don’t remember the play against Oliver, here’s another look (action begins at around 6:40):

The 2013 PCA kicks off on Saturday, Jan. 5 with the $100,000 Super High Roller. PokerNews will be on site to cover all of the big moments, so be sure to check our Live Reporting page for all of the updates from the Bahamas.

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Check out the original source here! Originally from PokerNews.com