Last summer, Brandon Mitchell beat a record-setting field to win life-changing money in the 2025 Arizona State Poker Championship.
The $1,100 buy-in tournament at Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale attracted 3,546 entries. A former police officer took it down for $525,700 by effectively protecting and defending his chip stack. Mitchell, competing in his home state, overcame a deep deficit to secure a career-best score. He was one of six players who booked a six-figure win in Arizona's biggest poker tournament of the year.
2025 Arizona State Poker Championship Final Table Results
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The final opportunity for players to find a bag takes place at 10:15 a.m. this morning for Day 1d of the Arizona State Poker Championship here at the Talking Stick Resort.
Over the past three days, a total of 2,881 hopefuls have tried their luck, with just 346 being able to advance to Day 2. Another busy day is expected with a field of 4,000 looking well within reach.
It is still Gregory Brown to hold the overall chip lead with 1,354,000, while nine total players have reached one million chips.
Greg Brown
Cumulative Day 1abc Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Gregory Brown
United States
1,354,000
169
2
Andrew Crookston
United States
1,278,000
160
3
Jacob McDonald
United States
1,150,000
144
4
Nicholas Julia
United States
1,138,000
142
5
Hunter Campbell
United States
1,116,000
140
6
Peter Fox
United States
1,106,000
138
7
Vinny Tran
United States
1,050,000
131
8
Pedro Salomao
United States
1,041,000
130
9
Deepa Shah
Canada
1,041,000
130
10
Sahib Purewal
United States
993,000
124
For the $1,130 buyin, players will begin the tournament with 40,000 chips at starting blinds of 100/100, with a 100 big blind ante. Levels are 40 minutes in length in each starting flight, with a 15-minute break every three levels. Play will continue until roughly 12% of the field remains, at which point the players will bag up their chips for Monday's restart, having already secured the minimum cash.
This tournament offers unlimited reentry until the start of Level 10 around 5 p.m. local time, at which point a late registration stack is worth 27 big blinds.
Day 1d Structure
Level
Blinds
Length
1
100/100
40
2
100/200
40
3
100/300
40
Break
15
4
200/400
40
5
300/500
40
6
300/600
40
Break
15
7
400/800
40
8
500/1,000
40
9
600/1,200
40
Break
End of Registration
15
10
1,000/1,500
40
11
1,000/2,000
40
12
1,500/2,500
40
Break
15
13
2,000/4,000
40
14
3,000/5,000
40
15
3,000/6,000
40
Break
15
16
4,000/8,000
40
17
5,000/10,000
40
18
6,000/12,000
40
Arena Poker Room at Talking Stick Resort
The earliest finish so far was in Day 1b with 5:40 remaining in Level 16 with blinds of 4,000/8,000.
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Stay tuned to PokerNews for updates from the floor in the final starting flight of the 2026 Arizona State Poker Championship.