Mark Brazis Wins Largest Tournament in Michigan History for $221K
FireKeepers Casino in Battle Creek, Mich., played host to a $1,100 buy-in MSPT Main Event over the weekend. It turned out to be the biggest tournament in state history with 1,287 entries, surpassing the previous record of 1,067 set in 2017.
The tournament offered three starting flights and a single reentry option for each, but it took Indiana’s Mark Brazis just one bullet to get the job done in his first MSPT event. The 36-year-old came out on top to win a $221,323 first-place prize.
It was far and away the biggest score of Brazis’ career. His prior best was $25,018 for taking fifth in the first event of the 2014 World Series of Poker Circuit Horseshoe Hammond.
Official Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mark Brazis | Syracuse, IN | $221,323 |
| 2 | Bryant Miller | West Unity, OH | $137,158 |
| 3 | Henry Zou | Saginaw, MI | $99,751 |
| 4 | Bryan Norris | Farmington Hills, MI | $76,185 |
| 5 | Kou Vang | Maplewood, MN | $57,357 |
| 6 | Justin Lee | Grand Haven, MI | $43,641 |
| 7 | Michael Reardon | St. Claire Shores, MI | $33,666 |
| 8 | Jason Zarlenga | Lansing, MI | $26,185 |
| 9 | Aaron Soulliere | Ontario, Canada | $21,197 |
| 10 | Charles Baryames | East Lansing, MI | $17,456 |
Final Table Action
The first final-table elimination came when Charles Baryames moved all in with ace-eight and failed to hold against the king-queen of Bryant Miller, who made a straight. Soon after, Aaron Soulliere exited in ninth place when he flopped top pair and ran it into Bryan Norris’ set of threes.
Two-time MSPT champ Jason Zarlenga got his short stack in with ace-seven offsuit and lost to Norris’ queen-jack suited after the flop came down jack-high.
At that point, a blind-versus-blind cooler hand developed when Michael Reardon raised to 400,000 with Big Slick and Day 1b chip leader Justin Lee defended with queen-jack. The former flopped top two pair and the latter a Broadway straight. The chips went in on the turn and Reardon failed to boat up to bust in seventh place.
Despite winning that hand, Lee was next to go after running ace-queen into ace-king, and then MSPT Poker Hall of Famer Kou Vang fell shortly after losing a big flip with pocket eights to Henry Zou’s ace-king.
Norris exited in fourth losing king-six suited to Miller’s king-queen, and Zou followed him out the door also courtesy of Miller. Zou got it in with pocket nines but lost a race to ace-ten. That saw Miller take a 2-1 chip lead into heads-up play against Brazis.
A lucky hand saw Brazis double into the lead, and then the duo jostled a bit before they both picked up big hands. Miller got his stack in with ace-king and was flipping against Brazis, who held two black queens. The board ran out nine high and Miller had to settle for second place.
“It was a hard battle, he played really well,” Brazis said after the win. “He took some bad beats but always handled himself well. He fought me to the end. I’m happy I was able to win tonight. You take bad beats earlier in the tournament, you win some you lose some. Just gotta be happy to come out on top.”
Others to cash the tournament were World Poker Tour champ Kevin Saul (25th - $6,983), MSPT Season 6 FireKeepers champ Harry Tisdale (29h - $5,237), MSPT Season 4 POY Pat Steele (43rd - $4,115), poker pro Kenna James (57th - $3,242), two-time champ Greg Himmelbrand (68th - $2,993), MSPT Season 7 FireKeepers winner Aaron Massey (87th - $2,743), #MSPT100 victor Jason Ramos (96th - $2,618), and Minnesota’s all-time money leader Blake Bohn (124th - $2,120).
Season 9 of the MSPT continues this summer at The Venetian in Las Vegas with five events offering a combined $12 million in guarantees. The first will be the $1,100 MSPT Venetian ($3.5 million GTD) from June 3-8.
Photo courtesy of MSPT
Editor's Note: Chad Holloway is Media Director for MSPT.
