John ‘Farmboy’ Kurfman Crowned MSPT Indiana State Poker Champion

John ‘Farmboy’ Kurfman Wins MSPT 2025 Indiana Poker State Championship for First Career Title & Also Becomes First To Win Gold Card #2 @AmeristarEC❗️https://t.co/umRoMzECFB pic.twitter.com/6qXlwB9gsK

— MSPT (@msptpoker) August 18, 2025

Sometimes you save your best run for the end of a poker tournament, and that’s just what John ‘Farmboy’ Kurfman did in the closing stages of the Major Series of Poker: The Tour main event at Ameristar East Chicago stop that ended on August 17. The Oklahoman came from behind heads-up to be crowned the winner of the MSPT Indiana State Poker Championship. The $90,324 top prize grew his career earnings to nearly half of a million dollars.

This was the second career title he’s won in the Midwest after taking down a Heartland Poker Tour title in Iowa back in 2009. It was also his second title of the past several weeks, having won a $300 buy-in side event at the Iowa Poker State Championship for $10,129.

“It feels great,” Kurfman told reporters after the win. He continued, “I’ve gotten two of these gold cards in the last two weeks while the POY leader doesn’t have any, so that makes it even better.”  MSPT gold cards are awarded to winners of events with a buy-in of $200 or greater held throughout the season.

The $1,110 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament held three starting flights to put the field at 534 entries, and that made for a total prize pool worth $516,480 to top the $300,000 guarantee. The top 59 players secured at least $2,273 in prize money, and then the payouts escalated on the final day of play.

Action From The Last Day

The final day of the tournament welcomed all those players back with a march down to a champion before them. Familiar faces that fell along that path included MSPT Hall of Famer Joshua Reichard (45th), MSPT champions Richard Bai (28th) and Jeff Copeland (27th) along with the player with the most cash won in the history of the tour D.J. Buckley (20th). The final stretch to the final nine included MSPT previous victors Kyna England (19th), Matt Porter (14th), and Corey Wick (12th).

Kurfman was nestled near the top of the chip counts with a stack that was good for third when the final table began. Another of the former MSPT champs was the first to fall as Lee Rzentkowski fell in ninth place to kick off the eliminations.

Varkey James was sent to the rail in eighth place, and Kurfman continued to stay out of the way of the major confrontations as Ariel Pressman took his leave in seventh place, and Mike Holm busted in sixth place. That trend continued as Ben Stuart was the next player to see his path in the tournament come to an end in fifth place.

After that is when Kurfman decided to make his move. He got all in short with pocket aces against the pocket fours held by Paul Choi to start his climb back to the top. Kurfman then scored his first knockout punch at the final table by taking out Choi in fourth place. Pawel Kotara was out next in third place as MSPT champion Jason Mendoza collected his third elimination of the night. That gave a 2:1 chip advantage to Mendoza.

Heads-Up Comeback Sees Kurfman Secure The Title

The start of heads-up play saw Kurfman’s stack dwindle. Then he woke up with pocket queens and got all-in against the A♦K♣ of Mendoza. The runout changed nothing in the flip, but that still had things 2:1 in favor of Mendoza. The “Farmboy” doubled again in an interesting hand that saw Kurfman raise to 600,000, and Mendoza called before a flop fell K♣J♠4♥

The two players checked to the 9♣ on the turn, and Mendoza then shoved with Q♣8♣ in the hole. Kurfman called all in holding K♠9♥, the river delivered the 6♥, and it was now Kurfman who held the 2:1 chip advantage. The next all-in hand decided the ballgame after that.

That hand saw Mendoza get all-in preflop for a three-bet worth 5.1 million holding A♦Q♦, and Kurfman called to cover him with K♠9♥. Mendoza was ahead until the final board of the tournament was dealt K♥3♦3♣4♥4♠, and Kurfman won the hand along with the title. Mendoza cashed for a solid $84,000 thanks to a heads-up deal the final two contenders struck to redistribute the remaining prize money.

Final Table Results