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Over the weekend, the Major Series of Poker: The Tour (MSPT) was at Iowa’s Riverside Casino for a $1,110 buy-in Main Event. It marked the third time the tour visited the venue in 2025, and over the course of three starting flights, 591 runners competed, with 64 of them returning to Sunday’s Day 2 finale.
After 12 hours of play, it was Indiana’s Anthony Kastelic coming out on top to claim the title and $115,559 top prize. He did so by besting a stacked final four that included MSPT Hall of Famers Aaron Johnson and Kou Vang, who were seeing their second and fourth MSPT titles respectively, as well as former MSPT champ Max Havlish.
“Feels a bit surreal, kind of dreamy,” Kastelic told MSPT reporter Anthony Thompson after his win. “I needed this win for my confidence. I won my first live event earlier this year for $87,000, and ended up making four more final tables, but wasn’t able to close out any of those.”
He added, “This MSPT win has also been dodging me. I made my first final table on the tour back in 2019 and went into the final table with the chip lead, but I blew it and ended up finishing in fourth place. I needed that experience, though, not only to make me better, but to also take this game more seriously, and I have … I needed the validation that the first win wasn’t a fluke, and I got it.”
2025 MSPT Riverside Final Table
| Place | Player | Prize | POY |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anthony Kastelic | $115,559 | 1,700 |
| 2 | Aaron Johnson | $70,993 | 1,500 |
| 3 | Max Havlish | $51,726 | 1,400 |
| 4 | Kou Vang | $38,520 | 1,300 |
| 5 | Bohdan Slyvinskyi | $29,165 | 1,200 |
| 6 | Jeff Copeland | $22,011 | 1,100 |
| 7 | Bruce Fagan | $17,059 | 1,000 |
| 8 | Justin Coliny | $13,207 | 900 |
| 9 | Greg Sessler | $10,455 | 800 |
A trio of players in the tight Season 16 Player of the Year race cashed in the tournament. DJ Buckley picked up 500 points for finishing in 17th place for $5,503, while Jake Long got the same amount of points for taking 18th for $5,503. Three spots behind was Umut Ozturk, who received 400 points for finishing 21st for $4,842. As a result, the former two gained 100 points on the latter, who sits atop the leaderboard.
As it stands with two stops to go in 2025, Ozturk is on top with 9,392 points and looking to win POY for the third year in a row, while Long is in second with 8,890 points. Josh Reichard sits in third place with 7,036, while Buckley is in fourth with 5,283.
Others to cash the tournament were Michael Estes (15th – $6,603), Steve Buell (20th – $4,842), Rich Alsup (25th – $3,412), Craig Trost (26th – $3,412), and “DQ” Dan Hendrickson (32nd – $2,641).
With that cash, DQ Dan kept his record alive of being the only player to have cashed every season of the MSPT. After securing his first-ever Main Event cash at Jackpot Junction back in 2010, Hendrickson has been able to rack up 29 more of them, with at least one coming in each season.
Hendrickson’s 30 Main Event cashes on the tour earned his seat in the MSPT’s coveted Hall of Fame back in 2023, and he has accumulated over $287,000 in that span, with his largest score of $106,182 coming after his title win back in 2015.
What’s Coming Up?
Only two stops remain in Season 16 of the MSPT, starting with the 12 Gold Card MSPT Festival at Ameristar East Chicago from Nov. 18-23.
The season will then wrap with the Winter Poker Classic Series at Minnesota’s Running Aces Casino from Dec. 2-14. That stop features 18 Gold Card events, including a $1,110 buy-in, $500K GTD Main Event from Dec. 4-7.
*Images courtesy of MSPT photographer Tyler Abrams.
PR & Media Manager
