Jordan Young, Ankush Mandavia Chop MSPT Poker Bowl
Jordan Young and fast-rising star Ankush Mandavia came out on top of a 695-player field at the first Mid-States Poker Tour $1,100 Poker Bowl, each netting over $100,000 in the event that played out at Venetian on Super Bowl weekend just before the big game. Young defeated Mandavia for a small payout difference and the trophy.
It's the biggest cash ever for Young, but it's just the continuation of Mandavia's continued run of excellence that started in 2015 and has seen him bank over $3 million. It's led to a nomination for Breakout Player of the Year at the American Poker Awards and Mandavia looks to be starting 2017 off strong, threatening a third straight big year.
Official Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jordan Young | Twin Lake, MI | $117,381* |
| 2 | Ankush Mandavia | Richmond, TX | $107,381* |
| 3 | Chris Moon | Sterling Heights, MI | $63,342 |
| 4 | Jordan Christos | Palmdale, CA | $46,996 |
| 5 | Patrick Gunraj | Las Vegas, NV | $35,417 |
| 6 | Jason Vanstrom | Colorado Springs, CO | $26,563 |
| 7 | Mike Vanier | Lincoln, NE | $20,433 |
| 8 | Mark Hamilton | Northridge, CA | $16,346 |
| 9 | Gary Bolden | St. Louis, MO | $12,260 |
| 10 | Joseph Alban | Henderson, NV | $10,217 |
Denotes final table deal
The $300,000 guaranteed event rocketed past that number with over $680,000 in the prize pool. Some of the players who grabbed a portion of the pie before heading for the doors included Chris Staats, Lily Kiletto, Anthony Spinella, Darren Rabinowitz, Eric Baldwin and Dutch Boyd.
According to the live updates, Young was among the shortest stacks with two tables left but won a key all-in pot to get back to par when he jammed 6♦5♦ on a 3♦2♣9♦ flop and was called by a player holding A♦Q♦. Young found a six on the turn to get back to 40 big blinds.
By the time the final table began, Young and Mandavia were atop the chip counts with about 2 million apiece at 15,000/30,000/5,000.
It was Chris Moon of Michigan making a move toward the lead early in the final table, eliminating Joseph Alban and Mark Hamilton, with start-of-day leader Gary Bolden going bust in between those two. Mike Vanier then got it in good against Moon with A♠Q♠ against A♦8♦, but even a 10♣5♠9♠ flop wasn't enough to keep Vanier in the game as an offsuit eight hit the turn.
Mandavia then won a race with K♦Q♦ against the sixes of Jason Vanstrom, who had to settle for sixth at his third MSPT final table appearance.
Moon's hot run came to an end shortly after Patrick Gunraj busted in fourth. Moon lost a race to Mandavia then jammed fives for 23 big blinds over a Young open. Young had aces and called, winning when both players hit sets. Moon did manage to ladder past Jordan Cristos into third and that left Young and Mandavia to battle.
Young had the lead early on but Mandavia moved into the lead when he rivered a straight all in preflop with king-queen against sixes. Then, it was Young's turn to double in a race, getting Q♥J♥ in for a little over 20 big blinds and winning against nines.
With neither player able to secure the tournament and blinds raising to the point where only about 50 big blinds remained on the table, the two opted to chop during a scheduled break. They left $10,000 to play for and that went to Young, along with the official win, when he shoved J♠4♠ and won against Mandavia's K♠10♦.
Photo courtesy of MSPT
