Billyray Gallegos Wins Mid-States Poker Tour Bally’s Black Hawk Main Event

The 2022 Mid-States Poker Tour Bally’s Black Hawk $1,100 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event attracted a strong turnout of 683 total entries, more than doubling the $300,000 guarantee in the process. In the end it was a resident of nearby Denver, Colorado who emerged with the title. Billyray Gallegos walked away with $104,890 for his first major live tournament win.

“It’s just my time man. I knew it inside. I have always made Day 2, cashed but this time I was like today is different,” he told PokerNews live reporters after coming out on top. “I dressed up today! I’m usually that hoodie guy, sweatpants, and everything. But today I was feeling good so I dressed up”.

After three starting flights running from Jan. 27-29, a total of 80 players returned on Sunday, Jan. 30 to play down to a champion. The top 72 finishes made the money, earning at least $2,181 for cashing in this event. By the time the final table of nine was set, players had locked up $11,898.

Gallegos entered the final table as the chip leader with 4.6 million. 2018 Card Player Poker Tour Golden Gates Casino main event winner Vincent Moscati sat in second place when cards got in the air with nine remaining. Brady Bullard scored the first two knockouts of the day to climb nearer to the top of the leaderboard.

Moscati lost a big chunk of his stack to Chris Gfull’s pocket kings. Shortly after that, he got all-in with A-J facing Gfull’s K-Q. A queen-high flop gave Gfull the lead, which he maintained through the turn and river. Moscati finished seventh of $19,830.

Bullard secured his third knockout of the day thanks to a massive preflop race during five-handed action. His ADiamond SuitKClub Suit outran the JSpade SuitJHeart Suit of Jared Ingles. A king on the river locked up the pot for Bullard and sent Ingles to the rail with $34,373.

Gallegos’ first elimination at the final table came when he picked up pocket kings facing the all-in of Gfull, who held A-10 suited. The big pair held up and Gfull was knocked out in fourth place ($45,610).

The final three players negotiated a deal that brought the tournament to its conclusion. Bullard was awarded $81,347 as the third-place finishers, while Ronald Scott took home $93,369 as the runner-up thanks to sitting on the second-largest stack at the time. Gallegos’ healthy chip lead was enough to earn him the title and a six-figure top prize.

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

Winner photo via MSPT’s official Twitter account.