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Anthony Finley Finds Redemption in 2026 Oklahoma State Championship of Poker $800 Main Event
Anthony Finley made his first major final table last year in the 2025 Oklahoma State Championship of Poker $800 Main Event, where he finished third for what was at the time a career-best score of $27,869. Today, Finley returned for the final Day of the same event and by the end of the night he was the last player standing, defeating Arturo Toscano heads-up to claim the Championship trophy and $58,803 top prize.
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anthony Finley | United States | $58,803 |
| 2 | Arturo Toscano | United States | $36,344 |
| 3 | Dylan Murrell | United States | $25,557 |
| 4 | Bobby Randolph | United States | $18,369 |
| 5 | Tandi Stevens | United States | $13,500 |
| 6 | Taylor Holcomb | United States | $10,151 |
| 7 | Nick McGuire | United States | $7,812 |
| 8 | Kyle Michael | United States | $6,159 |
| 9 | Jason Royman | United States | $4,976 |
| 10 | Michael Varnell | United States | $4,122 |
“It feels great. It feels really good,” Finley told PokerNews following the win. “I actually got into the event on a $140 satellite. It was on a little bit of a whim. I came in, played the Saturday flight, and just felt good. I was making moves when I needed to. I had to make a lot of big folds early on in Day 1 before I could build up a stack.
Finley described first playing poker at an early age, before taking up the game more seriously a couple of years ago.
“I’ve been playing since I was a kid. My grandpa got me into it. I would play online every now and then when I was really young and wasn’t supposed to. Then I didn’t really play at all as a teenager. I only played cash a handful of times in my early twenties. When I picked it back up two and a half years ago, I would play the monthly tournaments here. The Circuits would come in here and in Durant. Two and a half years ago, I dove into it all. Cash and tournaments.”
“One Hundred percent,” Finley said when asked if last year’s final table run gave him more confidence going into this one. “Last year’s final table was one of my first final tables, period. I didn’t really have a lot of experience last year. I was facing a lot of aggression and didn’t quite know how to deal with that. This year, I felt like I was the aggressive one, and I was pushing the action when I could. I felt like that was a huge experience boost for me.”
Final Day Action
Just 29 players returned to the final day from a field of 417 runners, and the eliminations were fast and furious from the get-go. Among those to hit the rail before the final table were Eric Bunch, Day 1a chip leader Brad Stevens, start-of-day chip leader Richard Gebhart, Sarah Renko, and Doug Paxton, who won the inaugural edition of this event in 2006.
Following the elimination of Michael Varnell in 10th place the final table was set, with Tandi Stevens starting the final table with the chip lead and Finley fifth in chips. Toscano got off to a hot start once the final table began, eliminating Jason Royman in ninth and Kyle Michael in eighth to put himself near the top of the counts. Finley, still in the middle of the pack, kept himself in contention after eliminating Nick McGuire in seventh, in a hand that saw McGuire shove with ace-four and Finley call with ace-ten.
Following the elimination of Taylor Holcomb in sixth, the action ground to a halt. All five players soon became relatively close in chips, and it took over two hours before another elimination occurred.
“So the pay jumps were pretty big,” Finley said of the lengthy five-handed battle. "I had the two big stacks to my left, which is the worst table draw ever. I was kind of at the mercy of the deck. I really didn’t have too many opportunities to make moves until I got a big double. My mindset was to kind of to wait for good hands to come, wait for good spots, and push the edge when I could.”
Two major hands ended the five-handed statelmate. First, Toscano crippled Dylan Murrell in a straight over straight cooler. Toscano then eliminated Stevens, holding with two pair against Stevens’ open-ender, to take a big lead over his three remaining opponents. Soon after, Finley flopped a flush to dispatch Bobby Randolph in fourth, closing the gap between himself and Toscano.
Following Murrell’s elimination in third place, Toscano held a 1.5:1 chip advantage over Finley going into heads-up play. Finley chipped away at Toscano, winning the first few hands without showdown to take a very small lead over Finley, before the deciding hand of the tournament took place. Finley flopped bottom two pair to Toscano’s top two pair, but the flopped checked through, and Finley turned a boat. A raising war ensued until all the chips got in the middle, and after fading a bigger boat from Toscano on the river, Finley took down the final pot of the tournament.
That’s a wrap on the PokerNews coverage of the 2026 Oklahoma State Championship of Poker. Stay tuned as we continue to provide updates from tournaments around the world.