Faraz Jaka’s First 2025 Cash is $127K Victory in MSPT Bally’s Black Hawk Main Event
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The Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT), which kicked off Season 16 in the New Year, wrapped up its stop at Bally’s Black Hawk Casino on Sunday night. The $1,110 buy-in Main Event attracted 636 entries over a trio of starting flights and awarded a $615,420 prize pool.
Walking away with a $127,849 top prize and his first MSPT title was established poker pro Faraz Jaka, the patriarch of JakaCoaching.com.
“I think I’ve played four tournaments here at Black Hawk and won two of them, so that's cool,” Jaka told MSPT officials after his win. “I feel like I should play more here because I live here. I typically play bigger buy-ins but since this was in my backyard and I had some students playing I thought I should pop in. I’m tempted to play more MSPTs because so many of the people I coach, this is the price point they play in, and I want to be familiar with the players here so I can better guide them, so maybe you’ll start seeing me at a few more of these.
He added: "This was a really cool moment. I had three of my Jaka students here at the final table with me while another (Kaushik Kannan) won the final [side] event, so that was awesome.”
Prior to the win, Jaka, who eliminated five players at the final table on his way to victory, had $8,057,431 in lifetime tournament earnings dating back to 2007. The win came less than two months after Jaka took down the Seminole Hard Rock RRPO Event #37: $10,000 NLH Deep Stack for $313,495, and less than two years after he claimed his first gold bracelet by winning the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Event #85: $1,500 NLH Shootout for $237,367.
MSPT Black Hawk Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Faraz Jaka | San Jose, CA | $127,849 |
| 2 | Zach Gutierrez | Denver, CO | $77,952 |
| 3 | Michael Banducci | Traverse City, MI | $58,000 |
| 4 | Umut Ozturk | St. Paul, MN | $43,032 |
| 5 | Caden Coleman | Oxbow, ND | $32,430 |
| 6 | Kelly Mahana | Denver, CO | $24,322 |
| 7 | Ross Babel | Breckenridge, CO | $18,710 |
| 8 | Mike Wheeler | Aurora, CO | $11,226 |
| 9 | Dianwei Sun | Aurora, CO | $11,226 |
Others to cash the tournament were Michael Giardina (13th - $7,484), Justin Lynch (17th - $6,237), Alex Cruz (21st - $5,363), Angela Jordison (23rd - $4,490), Kevin Eyster (24th - $4,490), Steve Wilkie (34th - $2,744), DJ Buckley (45th - $2,432), and Mo Nuwwarah (54th - $2,308).
Last year, Jaka was a guest on Life Outside Poker hosted by PokerNews’ Connor Richards. In the interview, the longtime poker pro talked about running up a six-figure bankroll in college, going broke and moving down stakes, battling back from a debilitating back injury to win his first bracelet in 2023, and running deep in this year's $25,000 Heads-Up Championship.
Jaka Coaching Review - Is it Worth It?
Dispatching a MSPT Hall of Famer
Jaka began the final table as the chip leader, but he had to contend with stiff competition including reigning back-to-back Player of the Year and MSPT Hall of Famer Umut Ozturk. The Minnesota player made it to four-handed play before bowing out in Level 26 (40,000/80,000/80,000).
According to live updates from the tournament, Ozturk shoved all in from the small blind holding ace-jack over an open from Jaka on the button. Jaka called with ace-king and the kicker made the difference as the board ran out clean to send Ozturk out in fourth place for $43,032.
After Michael Banducci exited in third place, Jaka took a slim chip lead into heads-up play against Zach Gutierrez. The two battled for two and a half hours before Jaka gained momentum and opened up a lead. In what would be the final hand of the tournament, Gutierrez got his stack all in preflop with ace-five and failed to get lucky against the ace-ten of Jaka.
What’s Coming Up
The MSPT will now return to Potawatomi Casino in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a stop they haven’t been to since before the pandemic due to the poker room shutting down and only reopening last year. The $1,110 MSPT 100 Grand Stack Main Event features a $500,000 guarantee and will run January 28-February 2.
After that, the tour heads to Las Vegas for the $1,000,000 GTD Poker Bowl IX at the Venetian with the final table slated to be live-streamed in the poker room's new studio.
Click here to see all upcoming MSPT stops.
*Images courtesy of MSPT.
