Who Are The Five Biggest MTT Winners From Mississippi?

The Magnolia State of Mississippi has had gambling in its blood since 1990. That is the date when the state government legalized casino gambling.

Two Mississippi cities, Biloxi and Tunica, are regular stops for major poker tours, including the World Series of Poker Circuit. Tunica has a vibrant gambling scene and is the third-largest gaming area in the United States.

It is, therefore, no surprise that several poker players from Mississippi are big winners. The state’s top five earners have $8,239,145 in combined winnings. Let us discover who those five stars are.

“Captain” Tom Franklin Is The Biggest Winner From Mississippi

“Captain” Tom Franklin of Gulfport, Mississippi, is a poker legend and a permanent fixture at the WSOP. Franklin tops the Mississippi all-time money list courtesy of his $3,322,743 in winnings. Check out Franklin’s Hendon Mob profile, and you discover 246 results stemming back to 1983. Ninety-six of those cashes are in WSOP events.

1999 saw Franklin win his one and only WSOP bracelet. He finished top of the pile in a $2,500 Omaha event for $104,000, his first six-figure haul. Franklin bested such luminaries as Eli Elezra, Humberto Brenes, and Amarillo Slim Preston.

Franklin has four other six-figure prizes, including one worth $434,025. That was his reward for winning the $5,150 Fourth Annual Five Diamond World Poker Classic in Las Vegas in December 2005.

Timothy Burt Ranks Second In Mississippi

Timothy Burt hails from Diberville, Mississippi, and has $1,283,969 in poker tournament winnings. Burt is best known for a third-place finish in the 2016 SHRPO Championship, where he banked $310,000. Only seasoned pros Seth Davies ($575,000) and Jason Koon ($1,000,000) outlasted Burt.

Burt enjoyed another $100,000+ score two years later. He won a $1,340 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event at the Gulf Coast Poker Championship in Biloxi for $103,752.

Gabe Costner Has Several Deep WSOP Runs

Gabe Costner of Long Beach, Mississippi, has $1,237,580 in live MTT winnings, but that tally could have been so much more. Costner has dozens of impressive results on his resume, but Lady Luck seems to elude him at the business end of events.

For example, he finished third in a $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em event at the 2010 WSOP for a career-best $279,327. Costner also banked $123,008 for a fifth-place finish in a $10,300 WPT Event, and fourth in a $5,000 WSOPC Championship Event.

Runner-up finishes and deep runs litter Costner’s results page. It is only a matter of time, indeed, that he gets the job done in a massive event.

Tyler Smith Won a PLO Bracelet In 2017

Tyler Smith jetted off to Las Vegas in 2017 and bought into the $565 Pot-Limit Omaha event. Another 3,185 players joined him, and he outlasted them all after three days of grinding. Smith returned to Smithdale, Mississippi, with $224,344 in prize money and a gold WSOP bracelet.

That result was the largest of Smith’s career, although he has four other prizes worth at least $100,000. Victory in a $5,000 buy-in event at Tunica bagged him $152,529, for example. Smith has a knack for winning big in Mississippi. We wonder if he will reproduce that form in Vegas during the 2021 WSOP?

Galen Kester Won His Bracelet In 2001

Pot Limit Omaha must be in the blood of Mississippi residents. Tom Franklin and Tyler Smith have WSOP bracelets in this discipline. As does Galen Kester, who won the $1,590 PLO event back in 2001, which netted him $167,035.

Kester other three largest prizes come from tournaments held in Tunica. He won a $2,070 NLHE, $1,060 Pot-Limit Hold’em, and $3,150 buy-in events for scores of $101,212, $152,096, and $165,000 respectively.

Matthew Pitt

If it’s something you can play online for real money, chances are Matthew knows a bit about it. He’s been writing about slots, craps and poker for the better part of the last decade. He’s written for PokerNews, PartyPoker and many other respected online gambling websites during the last nine years.

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