Former Poker Reporter Wins Mid-States Poker Tour Bally's Black Hawk Main Event

Mo Nuwwarah worked in the poker media from 2013 through 2021, with six years as a full-time staff writer for PokerNews. The Omaha, Nebraska native has recently transitioned to covering the sports betting industry, and is currently serving as a lead writer for The Lines. Despite shifting to a new industry, he has continued to be involved with poker as a player. Nuwwarah has cashed for more than $577,000 in tournament earnings, with his three biggest scores coming in the past five months. The largest of all of those came on Sunday, Jan. 28, 2024, when Nuwwarah outlasted a field of 822 entries to win the Mid-States Poker Tour Bally’s Black Hawk $1,110 no-limit hold’em main event in Colorado. He took home a career-high payday of $155,189 for the win.

In addition to the six-figure payout and the trophy, Nuwwarah was also awarded 912 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. This was already his second title of the year, having taken down a $600 buy-in event at the Harrah’s Council Bluffs Holiday Poker Classic during the first week of 2024. The $45,646 and 360 points he took home as the champion of that tournament when combined with his latest win on the MSPT, were enough to move him into fifth place in the 2024 POY standings presented by Global Poker.

Nuwwarah, who is one of the hosts of the football betting podcast Gridiron Gamble, has already cashed for more than $200,000 in POY earnings so far this year.

“It feels great,” Nuwwarah told MSPT reporters after coming out on top. “I mean, I started playing these events when I started covering them for work and that was about 10 years ago so, I had a couple of close shaves but was finally able to close one out.”

He has come close to a breakthrough win in a mid-major main event before, finishing runner-up in the 2023 World Series of Poker Circuit Council Bluffs main event for $72,216 and second in a 2019 MSPT main event for $42,349. Nuwwarah has won two circuit rings as well over the years, taking down a $400 no-limit hold’em event at a 2019 WSOPC Council Bluffs stop and a $600 H.O.R.S.E. at the WSOPC Horseshoe Hammond stop in 2018.

Nuwwarah survived to the final table as the short stack, and then cracked pocket aces with a rivered flush for his pocket kings to surge up the counts. He won another big all-in later in the day with pocket queens holding against the A-K of both Jeff Soffer (4th) and Antonio Vargas (3rd), who were sharing each other’s outs.

Nuwwarah was able to convert his 5:1 chip lead over Jeremy Wood into the title, with his 22 winning a flip against A8 to bring the event to a close.

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

Photo credit: MSPT.

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