Miguel Lopez won top honors in the inaugural Nevada State Poker Championship as the Major Series of Poker: The Tour returned to The Venetian Resort Las Vegas in late September. It was the first time that Lopez had ever played on the tour, and he took home the top prize worth $86,899, his first MSPT title, and the trophy as the champion. Lopez went wire-to-wire on the final day, converting his chip lead at the start of play into the title by the end.
The $1,100 buy-in no-limit hold’em poker tournament featured three starting flights, which drew a total of 522 entries, increasing the total prize pool to $503,730 and surpassing the $300,000 guarantee.
The top 59 finishers secured a cash of at least $2,313, and day 2 saw them all return for the march to a champion. Notables that ran deep included MSPT champion David Berger (33rd), MSPT Hall of Famer Josh Reichard (27th), multiple-time MSPT POY Umut Ozturk (18th), Jake Long (17th), Jesse Yaginuma (13th), and Nick Pupillo (12th).
From Nine To One
The final table began with Lopez still holding the lead at the top, and the first knockout saw World Poker Tour champion Taylor Black fall in ninth place at the hands of World Series of Poker gold bracelet winner Darren Rabinowitz. Eighth place went to 2023 North American Poker Tour Las Vegas main event champion Sami Bechahed, and Steven Zazaian fell next in seventh.
Rabinowitz took out another opponent when he sent Anthony Danna to the rail in sixth place. Two-time bracelet winner David Jackson was the next player to leave the field in fifth place, and fourth place marked the first time Lopez took out an opponent at the final table, with his pocket aces besting the pocket kings of Mikhail Sniatovskii in a brutal cooler.
Lopez kept the moment rolling when he busted Mohamed Serry in third place. That gave him a better than 4:1 chip advantage over Rabinowitz at the start of heads-up play. The first time Rabinowitz got all in preflop, his A♥7♣ found some help against the A♦10♦ of Lopez on a board that rolled out K♥9♥7♠K♠6♣. Lopez still had better than a 2:1 advantage after losing that pot, though.
The final hand saw Rabinowitz raise preflop, and Lopez called to defend before the flop was dealt K♦7♠5♠. Lopez check-raised to 1 million after Rabinowitz bet 300,000. Rabinowitz then three-bet all in with K♣10♥ in the hole, and Lopez called holding K♠7♣ for two pair. The board finished with K♥ on the turn and J♣ on the end to give Lopez kings full of sevens.
Rabinowitz took home $63,904 for the runner-up finish. The longtime poker professional now has more than $4.4 million in career cashes to his name.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Payout | POY Points |
| 1 | Miguel Lopez | $86,899 | 840 |
| 2 | Darren Rabinowitz | $63,904 | 700 |
| 3 | Mohamed Serry | $47,552 | 560 |
| 4 | Mikhail Sniatovskii | $35,803 | 420 |
| 5 | David Jackson | $27,280 | 350 |
| 6 | Anthony Danna | $21,038 | 280 |
| 7 | Steven Zazaian | $16,424 | 210 |
| 8 | Sami Bechahed | $12,981 | 140 |
| 9 | Taylor Black | $10,389 | 70 |
Photo Credit: MSPT.
