Daniel Sepiol of Indiana.

One room over, in the heart of the casino, it was a different world. Neon lights, electric screens, music pumping in the background. But in the main event center of Riverside Casino, the atmosphere couldn’t have been more different.

There was history to be made.

With 862 participants across a three-day slate, this weekend’s poker tournament set the record for the most competitors in Iowa history.

With a prize pool of more than $830,000, it also had the biggest payouts in state history. The last player standing was Daniel Sepiol of Michigan City, Indiana.

He walked away with a prize of more than $160,000.

“We’ve worked six months, probably, trying to get this together, and the numbers are blowing it out of the water right now,” assistant table games director Brian Goodman said.

Goodman said he expected the prize pool to hit five to six hundred thousand, but even he was impressed by the overall result.

The event was a collaboration between the casino and the Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT).

“Our sister property had been there, so we kind of know how they operate,” Goodman said. “We were just waiting to jump on the chance to have them come here.”

The previous record for a MSPT tournament in Iowa was last year’s event in Larchwood, in the northwest corner of the state. It had about 500 participants and a winning prize of $107,000.

“Most of our stuff just takes place in the poker room,” casino marketing director Damon John said. “We haven’t had… a big tournament since 2017.”

And what a big tournament it was. Walking into the event hall on Friday, you could feel the atmosphere in the room while the chips were down. It was one of intense concentration.

Twenty tables, each with players garbed in masks. There was chatting, there was laughter. But drowning it all out was the sliding of chips on which a fortune was to be gambled. 350 competitors were eliminated the first day. 450 the next.

There had been an $1,100 buy-in to the event. Not everyone would get it back.

The final day, only 64 players remained. It took well into the night for Sepiol to eventually prevail over the competition.

The tournament was preceded by various satellite games with lesser costs and stakes. These served as play-in contests for the weekend’s main event.

This was how locals entered the tourney, while “out of towners,” as Goodman put it, followed MSPT. Through social media and website updates, they flocked to Riverside Casino. Some of them, at least, became big winners. Seven of the final nine players were from out of state.

“All these poker players follow the tour…a lot of these guys have been here at one point or another,” John said. “They know it’s a pretty sweet spot for poker, so they come on down.”