Alejandro Jauregui Becomes an MSPT Showdown Series Champion

Alejandro Jauregui is usually found playing cash games when he is not working as a poker dealer. Jauregui swapped cash games for tournament poker this weekend, a decision that earned him $140,665. The 31-year-old won the $1,100 Main Event of the MSPT Showdown Series at the Sycuan Casino in San Diego.

An impressive crowd of 676 players created a $654,220 prize pool that the top 72 finishers shared. A handful of World Series of Poker bracelet winners managed to navigate their way into the money places.

Greg Raymer, the former WSOP Main Event champion, fell in 30th place for $4,318. Sandeep Pulusani has one WSOP bracelet on his resume. Pulusani crashed out in 14th for $7,196. Three-time bracelet winner Adam Friedman was the other former WSOP champion to cash. His tournament ended with a 10th place finish, which was good for $9,813.

Jauregui Holds Chip Lead at the Final Table

Tony Galanti burst the final table bubble when he busted in ninth place. This meant the surviving players were guaranteed at least a five-figure score for the efforts, and Jauregui led the way with 3,820,000 chips, narrowly ahead of Jose Araya with 3,300,000 betting tokens.

The first hand of the final table saw the first finalist fall by the wayside. A super short-stacked Haiau Han only had 30,000 chips at the 30,000/60,000/10,000a level. He put his stack into the middle of the table and received calls from Andrew Moreno, Jauregui, and Jason Fitzpatrick. The active trio checked the Kh-3h-Ac flop before the action checked to Moreno on the Ts turn. Moreno bet 100,000, which forced folds from his two non-all-in opponents. Han showed Ad-2h but was drawing dead to Moreno’s Qc-Jd.

Britton Scheibe was the next to fall almost immediately after Han’s demise. Fitzpatrick open-shoved from the small blind and Scheibe called off his 12 big blind stack from the big blind. It was Qc-5h for Fitzpatrick and As-9s for Scheibe. A board reading Jc-Tc-Kd-9h-8d sent Scheibe to the showers.

Sixth place and $20,281 went to Moreno, who missed a myriad of outs in a hand against Araya. There were already 300,000 chips in the middle of the felt when the flop Td-9c-7d. A mini raising war broke out that resulted in Moreno committing his last 900,000 chips and Araya calling. Moreno flipped over Ad-Jd and needed help against Araya’s 9s-7s. Help never arrived, however, with the 7c turn gifting Araya an unbeatable full house. The inconsequential As completed the board and sent Moreno home earlier than he would have wished.

Champion To Be Excels When Play Is Short-Handed

Jauregui put his foot on the gas when play was short-handed and reaped the rewards. First, he busted Araya in a hand that saw his stack swell to 7,500,000. Araya moved all-in for 2,060,000 on the river of the Td-As-8h-7s-Ac board with 1,300,000 already in the middle. Jauregui paused before calling with Ah-Jd. Araya could only muster the Kc-8d, and exited in fifth.

Fitzpatrick was the next player to feel Jauregui’s wrath. He found himself all-in preflop with Qd-Jd against the champion elect’s Ad-7d. The five community cards ran 2s-Kh-5h-3d-7s to reduce the player count by one.

Jauregui was now in complete control, courtesy of holding more than 10 million chips. The rich get richer, as they say, and this was true in his case. His Ah-6c held against the dominated Ad-2s of Eli Loewenthal to send the tournament heads-up where Jauregui had 12,400,000 chips to his opponent’s 4,600,000.

The final hand occurred during the 60,000/120,000/20,000a level. Jesse Jones initially limped in before three-betting all-in for 2,650,000 after Jauregui raised to 620,000. Jauregui called and showed 6c-6h, which faced the Ad-Js. Jones paired his jack on the 6s-Jh-Th flop, but Jauregui improved to a set. The 9d turn meant Jones was drawing dead, rendering the 5h river meaningless.

MSPT Sycuan Main Event Final Table Results

Place	Player	Prize
1	Alejandro Jauregui	$140,665
2	Jesse Jones	$88,320
3	Eli Loewenthal	$58,880
4	Jason Fitzpatrick	$40,562
5	Jose Araya	$26,823
6	Andrew Moreno	$20,281
7	Britton Scheibe	$15,701
8	Haiau Han	$11,122

The MSPT continues next week when it heads to Deadwood, South Dakota, for the 2021 South Dakota State Championship at the Silverado-Franklin Casino.

Lead image courtesy of PokerNews.com

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.

View Articles