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The Heartland Poker Tour, or HPT as it’s often called, is a popular series of lower buy-in poker tournaments spread across the country, but mostly centered in the nation’s midsection. I say “low buy-in” because although they are often in the $1,600 range, this is significantly lower than the vast majority of televised poker tournaments. Heartland Poker Tour, leave the puppies on the porch. By David Rowley.

1. Heartland Poker Tour Videos
2. Heartland Poker Tour Buy In Amounts

Table Of Contents

The Heartland Poker Tour, or HPT as it’s often called, is a popular series of lower buy-in poker tournaments spread across the country, but mostly centered in the nation’s midsection. I say “low buy-in” because although they are often in the $1,600 range, this is significantly lower than the vast majority of televised poker tournaments.

Though there's been much hand-wringing over the years about the 'health' of the game, at least one subsection of poker is healthier than ever.

The appetite for live poker tournaments in the $300 to $2,000 buy-in range has probably never been bigger. In the United States, tours such as Mid-States Poker Tour, the RunGood Poker Series, the Heartland Poker Tour, WPTDeepStacks and the World Series of Poker Circuit continue to pull in huge numbers year after year, often expanding by a few stops here and there.

Those are the arenas where I get to realize much of my passion for the game, and one of my goals in recent years has been to keep better records of my results. In that vein, while recently flying back from a trip to Australia to report at Aussie Millions, I spent some time filling out my spreadsheets of 2019 results.

Looking it over, several things struck me. I thought I'd go over the highs and lows of the year here and discuss what it can tell us about the low- to mid-stakes scene in the U.S.

The Numbers

What a sick year. A 191% ROI!

I wish. In fact, that was just the first four months of the year. Let's see that table again, only with everything else I played from May onward:

_{*Wasn't actually $0, but difficult to separate from work expenses}

Cue the sad trombone. That's considerably less impressive, if still pretty solid.

Takeaways

So, what are the takeaways from all of this?

Well, first off, it's likely that I ran above expectation. Obviously, I'm mostly playing very good value events. Still my understanding of tournament poker ROI is that 20% is considered pretty good. Therefore, even if I have a decent-sized edge — hopefully this is true! — 32% would be an optimistic expectation.

Also, heaters are fun! My spring sun run included a first-place finish in a Circuit re-entry and a second-place finish in an MSPT event.

Even so, it's important to recognize when you are on a heater and to plan ahead for the inevitable downswing. I cashed for about $117,000 last year, and 98% of it came in about 25% of the year. That's not a recipe for having consistent money, but it's a reality of life on the tournament scene. If you're instantly turning around and using those winnings for more action, the downer will hit very hard.

We must put away some of our winnings as an airbag for when we hit an icy patch and skid off the side of the road. If not we may incur serious injury necessitating a long rehab period — building back at smaller stakes — and be unable to continue firing.

Messy analogy aside, one thing that heater also brings to mind is that it's critical to work on your short-handed and heads-up games. Leaks in these spots can be immensely costly as these situations come up during the biggest money jumps in the tournament, and it's essential to adjust and fight for every pot so the blinds don't rip your stack to shreds. Securing these pay jumps is crucial to your bottom line as they can be the difference between a comfortable winning year and being in the red.

Perhaps the biggest shock to me was the massive number I wound up seeing at the bottom of the 'buy-ins' column. While playing very much part-time in between working a full-time job, keeping a regular workout schedule, and trying to have some small semblance of a social life, I still spent nearly $80,000 on tournament entries in 2019.

Now, I definitely took some shots, most notably the WPT Choctaw $3,500 Main Event. However, even during just the second half of the year, I spent well over $30,000 with only one small cash.

What that tells us is that we need a fairly sizable bankroll to comfortably play these events. Downswings of $40,000 are relatively routine. Even keeping expenses as low as I did — find yourself a good, trustworthy roommate and grind those short-term rental maps for value — that hits the old wallet pretty hard.

I recall a few years ago someone on Twitter starting a discussion of what sort of bankroll one would need to grind the WSOP Circuit. Numbers like $25,000 were getting thrown around, and to me that's completely unrealistic. I play an admittedly high-variance style, but that would cover two or three stops for me, and it's pretty easy to go that long without a significant cash. If I can fire off $80,000 in a year playing the odd Circuit and MSPT here or there, that's got to be a few months' worth of small-stakes play for guys like Ari Engel and Nick Pupillo.

Basically it's hard out on those live circuit streets to make the numbers work in the end. Maybe if I get a few six-figure scores rolling in I'll change my tune. But I guess for now, I'll be taking Engel's advice: stick to the day job and try to win some poker monies on the side.

• Tags

  tournament strategylive pokerWSOP CircuitMSPTHeartland Poker TourWPTDeepStacksRunGood Poker Seriesbankroll managementROImental game

• Related Tournaments

  World Series of Poker CircuitRunGood Poker SeriesHeartland Poker Tour

'It's still sinking in...' Kevin Garosshen told HPT Tournament Director Jeremy Smith after taking down the Heartland Poker Tour (HPT) Hollywood St. Louis $1,650 Main Event for $131,184 and a $3,500 Championship Package. Garosshen bested Brent Cunningham in heads-up action after a lengthy final table, and the Las Vegas, Nevada native said about his victory, 'I didn't come in with a top stack, and there were a lot of solid players at the final table. I just ran pretty hot, picked my spots pretty well, and it worked out.'

Garosshen, who now boasts over $430,000 in career tournament earnings according to Hendon Mob, was able to overcome a tough final table that included a pair of WSOP Bracelet winners in Kyle Cartwright and Brett Apter. 'Once Brett got out, he was the best player with four left. Once I won the flip versus him, it was steadily uphill from there. It would've been really tough if Kyle or Brett made heads-up, because they're some of the best.'

'Potter', as he was affectionately called by guest commentator Jerod Smith throughout the HPT's Twitch stream, thanked his friends and family after his victory in just his second-ever HPT Main Event, and added, 'It still feels kinda crazy!'

Lucas Tae was the first player to exit the final table, finding himself on the wrong end of a flip. Tae's jacks couldn't hold against the Big Slick of chip leader Austin McCormick, who continued his dominating run that started with two tables remaining on Day 2. His fellow St. Charles, Missouri native Neil Patel left next, his ace-five bested by the ace-eight of Kyle Cartwright. Cartwright had a hand in the next bustout as well, as Brian Reeder got his last ten or so big blinds in preflop with pocket sixes. Cartwright was waiting in the big blind with pocket queens, however, and Reeder exited in seventh.

McCormick's hot run finally came to an end in sixth, after a pivotal hand that changed the entire dynamic of the final table. McCormick attempt to run a three-barrel bluff against the start of the day short stack Laura Hoppe, but Hoppe called down with top pair, top kicker, sending her soaring into the chip lead and leaving McCormick as one of the shorter stacks. He managed to find a few ladders up the pay chart, before jamming jack-nine into Cartwright's ace-king preflop. McCormick found no help on the board to end his second HPT St. Louis final table two spots shy of his fourth-place showing last August.

From there, the chip lead bounced back and forth between the quintet for a few hours, with Cartwright, Brent Cunningham and Brett Apter all spending time as the short stack, while Kevin Garosshen and Hoppe stayed near the top of the counts. After the dinner break, Garosshen, Hoppe and Apter all held over 35 big blinds, while Cartwright and Cunningham were down to under fourteen big blinds. The two short stacks found themselves battling soon after play resumed, and Cartwright's ten-nine couldn't overcome Cunningham's ace-eight in a blind versus blind confrontation. Cartwright, who won a WSOP Bracelet in 2014 in a $1,000 No Limit Hold'em event, lost his last crumbs shortly after to finish in fifth-place, leaving him with $28,233 to take home to Tennessee.

The other WSOP Bracelet winner at the table would be the next to exit, as the 2019 WSOP $1,500 Shootout Bracelet winner fell victim to Hoppe. Apter flopped top pair with ace-king, but Hoppe's ace-ten flopped top two, and Apter put all but around half a big blind of his stack in on the river. Hoppe called with the best hand, and although Apter managed to spin his stack back up to around seven big blinds, he fell in a flip to Garosshen to exit in fourth.

Hoppe's magical day would be the next to end, however, as Cunningham spiked a three-outer to take a chunk of chips from Hoppe. A few hands later, Hoppe tried to bluff Garosshen on a coordinated board, but Garossen made the call with second pair to leave Hoppe short. She got her last five big blinds in with ace-eight, but Cunningham was waiting with kings and sent Hoppe, a NASA Engineer, home short of heads-up action.

Heartland Poker Tour Videos

Heads-up action was a short-lived affair, as Garosshen steadily ground Cunningham down to around fifteen big blinds. Cunningham tried to steal over a Garosshen button open. Garosshen held ace-ten and called, and Cunningham couldn't hit with his ten-deuce to send the Colorado food truck operator home a little over $80,000 richer.

When asked what his plans for the money where, Garosshen beamed and said, 'I'm definitely going to fire a lot more events now; maybe fire some more HPT stuff. It's definitely gone well!'

Heartland Poker Tour Buy In Amounts

That concludes our coverage of the HPT St. Louis Main Event. The HPT's next stop is a Mini Series in Toledo, Ohio from March 5th through the 15th.