The Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) returned to the beautiful mountainside at Bally's Casino in Black Hawk, Colorado, and hosted a 15-trophy Showdown Series which was headlined by its $1,110 buy-in, $300K GTD Main Event.
A total of 822 entries (171 from Day 1a; 264 from 1b; 387 from 1c) were tallied through three starting flights and generated a $795,840 prize pool.
On Sunday, 101 players returned for Day 2 action, and after roughly 12 hours of action, it was Mo Nuwwarah who came out on top to win the $155,189 top prize and his first MSPT title!
“It feels great,” Nuwwarah continued to say after his victory, “I mean, I started playing these (MSPT) events when I started covering them for work and that was about 10 years ago so, I had a couple close shaves but was final able to close one out.”
The shaves Nuwwarah mentioned included a second place finish back in 2019 for $42,349 but he was able to top that today with a career best six-figure score, bringing his MSPT earnings to $274,709.
Day 2 Action
With 90 slated to get paid, only six players needed to exit before players reached the money. Among those to leave empty-handed were Nick Bossard, Josh Remitio, Ryan Galpern, Allan Salloum, and two-time MSPT champ Nick Barksdale just to name a few.
Once the tournament reached the hand-for-hand process, only a few hands were played before Sherry Hammers pocket aces were set up by Roger Low’s pocket queens, and the march to the final table began.
Among those to fall along the way, albeit with a payday, were Michael Campbell (10th Place - $11,142), three-time MSPT champ Carl Carotenuto (11th Place - $11,142), MSPT Season 14 Player of the Year Umut Ozturk (21st Place - $6,685), Angela Jordison (23rd Place - $5,650), and MSPT Hall of Famer Josh Reichard (26th Place $4,616).
Final Table action
Once the final table was set, Nuwwarah sat at the bottom of the counts while Jeremy “Woody” Wood sat at the top of the counts, but after three levels of double-ups took place, Nuwwarah was able to come out with the first elimination after his pocket kings flushed out Michael Giardina’s pocket aces on the river.
After that action hand, Shant Marashlian found himself in a similar cooler holding a made hand of kings against Antonio Vargas’ pocket aces.
Unlike Nuwwarah, Marashlian’s cowboys were unable to pull ahead and became the second final table elimination.
Following Marashlian to the payout desk was Sean Lee, who roller coaster of a final table came to an end after he failed to hit live cards against Nuwwarah.
Nuwwarah would continue his elimination spree after his Big Slick dominated Mansour Alipourfard’s ace-jack, eliminating him his in sixth place and then quickly followed with another knockout after he flushed out Jack Corrigan’s ace-king in fifth place for $39,792.
After Corrigan departed, four-handed action saw a three-way all-in with Nuwwarah’s pair of ladies ahead of the shared ace-king hands of Jeff Soffer and Vargas.
Luckily for Nuwwarah, his ladies held strong to score the double elimination sending Soffer home in fourth place for $52,535, while Soffer took 3rd place for $70,352.
From there, Wood was able to take a quick double-up against Nuwwarah in their heads-up battle, but he couldn’t catch enough steam as he was set-up a few short hands later and took a runner-up finish for $95,469 while Nuwwarah secured his first MSPT trophy and career payday good for $155,189!
The MSPT (Mid-States Poker Tour) will be making its way to JACK Cleveland Casino from January 31st - February 4th to host another trophy series, and MSPT team will be on hand providing updates for the $500K GTD $1,110 Main Event so make sure to come back!