Faraz Jaka Triumphs In Mid-States Poker Tour Bally’s Blackhawk Main Event

Faraz Jaka grabbed another title to add to his trophy chest close to home in Colorado by winning the Mid-States Poker Tour Bally’s Black Hawk main event on Jan. 26. This was the 39-year-old’s 21st recorded victory on the circuit, including a win in the 2023 World Series of Poker $1,500 shootout event. The top prize for this latest triumph was $127,849, which grew the poker coach and professional player’s career earnings above $8.3 million.

“I think I’ve played four tournaments here at Black Hawk and won two of them, so that’s cool. 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," said Jaka after the win.

“I’m tempted to play more MSPT stops because so many of the people I coach this is the prize 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," Jaka mused.

“This was a really cool moment, I had three of my Jaka Coaching students here at the final table with me while another (Kaushik Kannan) won the final event, so that was awesome," he concluded.

The $1,110 buy-in no-limit hold’em event drew a field of 636 entries, creating a final prize pool up to $615,420 to more than double the guarantee of $300,000. The final 68 players all cashed for at least $2,058. That’s how many players came back for the final day of play for the usual long march down to a champion.

Familiar faces lost along the way on the final day included Mo Nuwarah (54th), Nick Barksdale (50th), DJ Buckley (45th), Steve Wilkie (34th), Angela Jordison (22nd), Alex Cruz (21st), Justin Lynch (17th), and Antonio Vargas (14th). After all of that the final nine were set, with Jaka at the top of the chip counts.

Jaka then took out Dainwei Sun in ninth place, and Ross Babel in seventh place. Mike Wheeler fell in eighth place in between those bookends. Kelly Mahana was out after that in sixth place, and Jaka got back in action again when he busted Caden Coleman in fifth place.

Back-to-back MSPT player of the year Umut Ozturk then fell at the hands of Jaka in fourth place to take action down to three-handed. Zach Gutierrez then eliminated Michael Banducci to pull close to Jaka before the start of heads-up play.

Jaka held a slight 11:9 chip advantage when cards got into the air between the final two players, and they traded chips back and forth before the final hand of the tournament played out.

That hand saw Gutierrez get all in with A-5, but he was dominated by the A-10 of Jaka. The superior kicker made the difference in the end, securing another tournament victory along with the MSPT trophy and top prize money for Jaka. Gutierrez was awarded $77,952 in prize money as the runner-up, which propelled his career earnings past the $700,000 mark.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

The MSPT tour will continue with another main event at Potawatomi Casino & Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin running from Jan. 30- Feb. 2.

Photo Credit: Mid-States Poker Tour.