For the second time this season, the MSPT traveled to the Ameristar Casino St. Charles to host the Ameristar Poker Open 13-Gold event, headlined by the $1,110 Main Event.
A total of 468 entries were tallied across three starting flights, generating a $469,920 prize pool.
On Sunday, 54 players returned for Day 2 action, and after roughly 10 hours of play, it was reigning Player of the Year Jake Long who battled his way through the challenging final day field en route to winning a career-best score of $97,282 top prize and his first MSPT title!
“Feels great,” Long stated after his win. “I feel like it's been a long time coming. I mean, I didn’t have many chips to start the day, but I’ve had some really decent runs here in St. Louis, and I started getting cards at the right time, I got a good suck out against Charlie (Reichard) and especially during heads-up, so it just feels good to take it down.”
In just two short years on the tour, Long has already accomplished some impressive feats. After taking down one of the closest Player of the Year races in Season 16, he came back to add his first career title, bringing his MSPT earnings to $606,825, and has put himself in contention once again in this season's POY race as well.
“I just want to shout out the whole MSPT family, from Josh to Umut and DJ, Jerry, Bryan, my wife, obviously, and to everyone back home who’s been supporting me; you guys rock.”
This win also earned Long a record-extending 9th Gold Card on the tour, and he has also secured himself a seat in the $3,500 MSPT Championship Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open (RRPO), which will be held at the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida, Nov. 18 – Dec. 2, boasting a $2,000,000 GTD Main Event!
Day 2 Action
The final day came back with all 54 players already in the money, so action kicked right into gear with Ken Sparks being the first body to drop, while MSPT Champ Anthony Scarborough and DJ Buckley were part of the first batches of eliminations, with Buckley notching his record-extending 93rd Main Event cash, as he makes his way towards being the first player in tour history to earn 100.
The fast-paced action would continue with two-time MSPT Champ Angela Jordison (45th Place - $2,300), MSPT Hall of Famer Gerald Cunniff (43rd Place - $2,300), MSPT Champ Jeff Copeland (32nd Place - $2,534), and fellow Hall of Famer and three-time MSPT Champ Josh Reichard (25th Place - $2,910) all falling in quick succession of each other, with Reichard padding his Player of the Year standings after notching his 18th cash on the season.
After Reichard hit the deck, there were only two former past Player of teh Year’s remaining in the field, until back-to-back champ Umut Ozturk bowed out in 21st place for $4,036, WSOP bracelet winner Mike Wilklow (19th Place - $4,036), Martin Kinder (16th Place - $4,693), Dalton Jones (14th Place - $5,632), and Mark Lafata (10th Place - $7,040) as they all fell before the final table.
Final Table Action
Once the final table was set, Andros Ioakimides sat at the bottom of the chip counts, but was able to find a double-up through Maurice Hawkins before ultimately being set up by him to become the first final table elimination.
Following Ioakimides to the payout desk was Aaron Sanders, who got his chips in the middle with a made hand of nines, only to run into MSPT Champ Chris Audrain’s pair of kings, as he took home $11,733 for his first-ever MSPT main event cash.
The very next level saw the clash of the two top stacks after Stephen Green ran his pair of jacks into Mike Hurley’s pair of aces, ending his deepest MSPT Main Event run in seventh place for $15,018.
The fast-paced action would continue, as the last standing former champ Audrain would run his ace-queen into Long’s Big Slick, sending him home in sixth place for $19,242, marking his 15th Main event cash, while WSOP circuit legend Hawkins would then fall to the bottom of the chip counts and got his chips in good in a battle of the blinds against Charlie Reichard, but ended up getting rivered to take a fifth-place exit for $25,343, marking his sixth Main Event cash to bring his tour total to $166,996.
With four players remaining, Reichard was starting to make some leeway up the chip counts, but hit a couple of road bumps during a few orbits to fall to the bottom of the chip counts, and he got his remaining stack in the middle after flopping an open-ended straight draw, but Hurley called and turned the nut flush to end his run in fourth place for $33,790.
Hurley would continue with his elimination spree after he picked up a pair of cowboys to drop Randy Terrell’s queen-ten on a queen-high flop, sending him home in third place for $45,758, leaving him heads-up against the reigning Player of the Year Long.
The heads-up match saw Hurley holding a 12:2 chip advantage over Long, but he was able to secure an early double with ace-queen against ace-jack, and then found a massive double after turning a full house to secure his first Main Event title along with a career score of $97,282, while Hurley was sent home with a second-place finish for $66,500.
This wraps up our coverage of this year’s Ameristar Poker Open, but Season 17 of the MSPT continues as we head back to Sin City for the 2026 Nevada Poker State Championship (September 10th – 13th), and our reporting team will be on hand providing updates staright from the floor at the Venetian Poker Room, so make sure to come back!