Alejandro Jauregui Wins 2021 Mid-States Poker Tour Sycuan Main Event

The first-ever Mid-States Poker Tour Sycuan $1,110 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event attracted 676 total entries, blowing away the $200,000 guarantee to create a final prize pool of $654,220. In the end the largest share of that money was awarded to 31-year-old poker dealer Alejandro Jauregui, who emerged victorious with the title and the first-place prize of $140,665. Jauregui, who deals at the Bay 101 Casino in San Jose, made the trip south to San Diego for this event. He will be returning home with a trophy and six figures in earnings.

Jauregui was also awarded 840 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion of this event. This victory alone was enough to see him climb into a three-way tie for 57th place in the 2021 POY race, which is sponsored by Global Poker.

A total of 81 players survived the three starting flights in this event to make day 2, with only the top 72 set to make the money. The bubble burst early in the day, and it around eight hours for the field to be further narrowed down to a final table of eight. Jauregui took the lead into the final table following Tony Galanti’s elimination in ninth place ($9,813), with Jose Araya and Jason Fitzpatrick sitting on the next-largest stacks.

Haiau Han was the first to hit the rail at the final table, when his A-K failed to beat out the Q-J of Andrew Moreno. Han earned $11,122 as the eighth-place finisher.

Not long after that, Britton Scheibe called all-in from the big blind holding A9 and was ahead of the Q-5 offsuit of Jason Fitzpatrick, who had shoved when it folded to him in the small blind. Fitzpatrick turned a king-high straight and held from there to send Scheibe home with $15,701.

Moreno was the next to fall. The 2019 WSOP Circuit Bicycle Casino main event runner-up got all-in with a flush draw and straight draw, holding AJ on a 1097 flop. He found himself at risk against the 97 of Jose Araya, who had flopped bottom two pair. The 7 on the turn gave Araya a full house to leave Moreno drawing dead. He earned $20,281 as the sixth-place finisher, increasing his career live tournament earnings to $898,575.

Despite earning that knockout, Araya was ultimately the next player to be eliminated. He got involved in a massive pot that saw him shove all-in on the river with a board of A1087A. Jauregui called with AJ for trip aces and had the best hand against Araya’s K8. Araya cashed for $26,823 as the fifth-place finisher.

Jauregui took a healthy lead into four-handed action. He extended his advantage even further by busting Jason Fitzpatrick in fourth place. Fitzpatrick got all-in with QJ against the A7 of Jauregui. The board improved neither player and Fitzpatrick was sent packing with $40,562.

Eli Loewenthal’s run in this event came to an end when his A2 ran into the A6 of Jauregui. The JJ457 runout kept Jauregui’s kicker in play to earn him the pot, while Loewenthal took home $58,880 for his third-place showing.

Jauregui took roughly a 3:1 chip lead into heads-up play with Jesse Jones. He was able to extend that lead even further by the time the final hand was dealt. Jones limped in from the button for 120,000 with AJ and Jauregui raised to 620,000 from the big blind holding 66. Jones moved all-in for 2,650,000 and Jauregui made the call. It was a classic preflop race, but the the J106 flop saw Jauregui flop a set to take the lead. The 9 on the turn meant that Jones was drawing dead. The 5 on the river secured the pot and the title for Jauregui, sending Jones to the rail with $88,320 for his runner-up finish.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Winner photo credit: MSPT Twitter account.

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