The MSPT returned to the beautiful Venetian Resort in Las Vegas for the fourth time this season, and second as the MAJOR Series of Poker - The Tour, to host the inaugural Nevada Poker State Championship!
A total of 522 entries were tallied after three starting flights, and on Sunday, just 59 players returned to action for the final day, in hopes of securing the top prize from the $503,730 prize pool.
When the dust finally settled, it was start-of-day chip leader Miguel Lopez who seized the moment, earning a career score in his first-ever MSPT to capture the 2025 Nevada Poker State Championship trophy!
Day 2 Action
The final day came back with all 59 players already in the money, so action kicked right into gear with Ben Palmer losing a race to MSPT Hall of Famer Josh Reichard in the first hand of the day, while Eric Lin followed him to the payout cage shortly after in the first batch of eliminations.
After Lin hit the deck, a flurry of “payouts” could be heard throughout the room, as handfuls of players were walking to the payout table which included the likes of Irene Carey (47th Place – $2,526), Stanley Lee (45th Place – $2,526), WSOP bracelet winner Billy Kopp (42nd Place - $2,798), Melanie Pittard (37th Place - $2,798), and MSPT Champ David Berger (33rd Place - $3,144) all hit the deck before the three table redraw.
The final three tables were stacked with crushers, with the Player of the Year Race hanging in the balance, as the top three players were still in contention until MSPT Hall of Famer Reichard’s tournament ended in 27th place ($3,144), and back-to-back Player of the Year Umut Ozturk (18th Place – $4,846) & Jake Long (17th Place – $4,846) fell shortly after, setting the stage for the final table.
Final Table Action
Once the final table was set, short-stack Sami Bechahed was able to find a latter-up after Taylor Black’s pocket kings were cracked by WSOP bracelet winner Darren Rabinowitz’s Big Slick, as they were the first two final table eliminations.
The fast-paced action continued with Steven Zazaian being involved in a three-way all-in preflop with a made hand of jacks, and he improved to a set on the flop, only to be turned and rivered to take a seventh-place exit.
Anthony Danna came into the final day with just 98,000, but was able to maneuver his way all the way to the final table until he was tripped up in sixth place by Rabinowitz.
From that point, three-time bracelet winner David Jackson was in survival mode, hovering at the bottom of the chip counts, and flopped an open-ended staright flush draw with a pair to roll with, only to run into Mikhail Sniatovskii’s pair of kings to end his run in fifth-place.
The knockout sent Sniatovskii to the top of the chip counts with only Lopez holding more chips than him, but as fate would have it, an aces vs kings hand would occur against the two, with Sniatovskii’s and his two cowboys taking a fourth-place finish for $35,803.
After Sniatovskii’s departure, Mohamed Serry was left in desperate need of chips and was able to find one double-up before ultimately taking a third-place finish for $47,552.
The heads-up match between Lopez and Rabinowitz started with Lopez holding over ninety percent of the chips in play, but Rabinowitz was able to put up a fight after securing an early double, only to still end up taking a runner-up finish for $63,904, while Lopez walked away with the inaugural championship and his first career MSPT title.
This concludes our coverage for the inaugural Nevada Poker State Championship, but the MSPT is headed back to the Potawatomi Hotel & Casino in Milwaukee, WI, to host the Wisconsin Poker State Championship, September 30th - October 5th, and the MSPT team will be on hand providing updates for the $1,000,000 GTD $1,110 Main Event, so make sure to come back and tune in!