09/02/2025
James Anderson Wins MSPT JACK Cleveland; B2B Final Tables Vaults Umut Ozturk to POY Lead
Over the weekend, the Major Series of Poker: The Tour (MSPT) concluded its stop at JACK Cleveland. The $1,110 buy-in, $750K GTD Main Event attracted 892 runners and surpassed the guarantee by offering up a $863,740 prize pool.
On Sunday, the 99 survivors from three starting flights returned to play to a winner, and it was Day 1b chip leader James Anderson emerging victorious to claim the title and $165,303 top prize.
“It feels good,” Anderson told MSPT reporter Anthony Thompson after the win. “The final table was crazy, but the structure was really good and deep, so I just grinded it out as long as possible. This is originally my hometown, so it’s nice to be able to come back here and get a win.”
He added, “Joe runs really good tournaments, and I enjoy playing these ones. The guys who travel along with the tour are really good players and are very nice as well, so I’m very proud of the win.”
Others to cash the tournament were MSPT Hall of Famer Chris Moon (11th - $11,865), Nick Lanzi (15th - $10,170), Bobby Noel (20th - $7,119), Austin Hanna (30th - $3,729), Mike Estes (38th - $3,051), DJ Buckley (39th - $3,051), and Lee Rzentkowski (42nd - $3,051).
Defending Player of the Year Vaults to Lead
The weekend before, one of the more interesting stories to come out of the MSPT Hollywood St. Louis stop was that both Jake Long and Umut Ozturk made the final table. Coming into the stop, the duo sat first and second respectively atop the MSPT Season 16 Player of the Year leaderboard.
Ozturk, the reigning back-to-back MSPT POY, ended up making back-to-back final tables by finishing the MSPT JACK Cleveland in third place for $74,922. What’s more, he received 1,500 POY points to vault over Jake Long – who was a guest on Episode 2 of the MSPT Podcast Presented By PokerNews – atop the MSPT Season 16 POY leaderboard with 7,667 points. Long now sits in second with 6,944 points.
MSPT JACK Cleveland Side Event Winners
The stop kicked off with Event #1: $400 Tag Team, which drew 354 entries. The team of Daniel Wolf and Kevin Trosky won that one for $15,390, while Penelope Banhidy topped a 351-entry field to take down Event #2: $300 Seniors (50+) NLH for $13,382.
Walter Fuge prevailed over a 120-entry field in Event #3: $300 Monster Stack NLH for $8,855, and then Eric Lea bested a 102-entry field to win $26,340 in Event #5: $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha.
What’s Coming Up?
This weekend, the Major Series of Poker: The Tour (MSPT) will be at JACK Cleveland, but once they’re finished there, they will head across the county for the 100 Grand Stack Series at Sycuan Casino Resort in San Diego, California.
The festival, which runs August 28 through September 7, features 24 Gold Card Events, including the $400 buy-in, $100K GTD 100 GRAND STACK NLH, a $300 Seniors (50+) Monster Stack that is a part of the MSPT Senior Tour, and a $300 pot-limit Omaha event.
The stop will culminate with the $1,110 buy-in, $300K GTD 100 Grand Stack Main Event, which will feature three starting flights. Day 1a will kick off at 2 p.m. PT on Thursday, September 4, with late registration open until ~10:40 p.m. Players will start with 100,000 in chips and play 40-minute levels.
Days 1b and 1c will take place at the same time on Friday and Saturday, respectively, before the surviving players will return in the money on Sunday for Day 2 action, where they will play down to a winner.
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