The Mid-States Poker Tour event at the Sycuan Casino in San Diego wrapped up today. The $1,110 main event represented the final round of the U.S. Poker Championship.
There were 456 players the Sycuan event, all of them with their eyes on the $94,782 for the first-place finisher. This made for a prize pool of $440,820 after the rake had been raked.
The Sycuan event is one of the few MSPT events this year that aren't being hosted by the Venetian in Vegas.
The MSPT schedule this year has been heavy on events at the Venetian. A combination of COVID closures across the country and poker's relatively small profit margin compared to slots and table games have left the MSPT with a limited number of venues during COVID. The Venetian has been open for a while and has seen excellent attendance at each of the MSPT legs that it has hosted during the pandemic.
The MSPT posted a photo of the final nine — with the caption: "We have reached The Final Table of The USPC $1,100[sic.] Main Event @SycuanCasino."
Winner at Sycuan
The three Day 1s saw the 456 player field cut down to 60 players, who gathered all together for the first and last time on Day 2. Day 2 saw the field whittled down from 60 to just one.
It was a grueling few days. Day two ran a full 12 hours in order to cut the field down without running over to a Day 3, with all the attendant logistical troubles that would have added.
The field eventually came down to a final table of: Allen Galutera; Vladimir Medvinsky; Rubin Chappell; Lucy Hargett, the only woman at the table; Pej Niyati; Gary Hansen, no relation to Gus; Mike Rosado; and the heads up pair of Jonathan "Cosmo" McGowan and Paten.
The blinds stood at 50,000/100,000 with an ante of 10,000. The stacks were fairly even when heads up play started, but some bad luck saw McGowan putting his last chips in on a river-bluff to take down a 500k pot.
The board stood at 9♣8♠K❤️3♠6♣ and McGowan's T♣5♣ was a whole bunch of missed draws. Unfortunately, McGowan's shove wasn't enough to make Paten fold his middle pair. Paten called and showed Q❤️8♦️ to take down the pot and the tournament.
"Matt Paten is The USPC $1,100 Main Event Champion @SycuanCasino," wrote the MSPT Twitter account. "Paten outlasts 456 runners taking home the [cup] and $94,782 cash."
MSPT $1,110 Sycuan Casino Main Event complete final table results
| Position | Player Name | Payout |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Matt Paten | $94,782 |
| 2nd | Jonathan McGowan | $58,232 |
| 3rd | Mike Rosado | $41,966 |
| 4th | Gary Hansen | $31,739 |
| 5th | Pej Niyati | $23,804 |
| 6th | Lucy Hargett | $18,704 |
| 7th | Rubin Chappell | $14,106 |
| 8th | Vladimir Medvinsky | $11,021 |
| 9th | Allen Galutera | $8,376 |
Featured image source: Flickr by Niklas Morburg, used under creative commons 2.0 license.
