Screenshot
Mike Giardina is the winner of the $200,000 Guarantee Colorado Poker Championships Fall 2025 $1,200 Main Event after the final four players, all sitting behind deep stacks, decided to chop the remaining prize money.
Giardina was just ahead of defending CPC Main Event champ Antonio Vargas, and the two decided to play one showdown hand of Omaha to decide who would receive the trophy. Giardina collected the heavy marble trophy by making aces up, besting Vargas’s lower two pair.
After some minor adjustments, these were the payouts each of the final four players received:
- Michael Giardina – $46,310
- Antonio Vargas – $46,228
- Zack Gutierrez – $40,145
- Richard Dixon – $32,210
Giardina narrowly qualified for Day 2 after losing most of his chips in a big hand just before late registration closed for the final starting flight. Giardina made a last-chance re-entry, then stormed back in the final levels to bring a strong stack to Day 2.
Sunday, he climbed steadily upward for most of the day, finally breaking through to the lead as the main event reached its final table. With the blinds high, though, Giardina and others swapped the lead several times before the final four survivors opted for the deal.
“I mostly hung on, like we all do, right?” Giardina explained. “And I hung on long enough to see people go, and then I got into some good spots and came up with a few good hands.”
One of his best moments came very late, during five-handed play, when he got to see a three-way flop for cheap, caught an unlikely straight on the flop, and cracked Nicholas Hammarstrom’s pocket Kings for a big pot that moved him to the lead.
Giardina was quite happy to agree to the chop, too, despite helping to sweeten the pot for the third- and fourth-place finishers. “I think that’s real fair,” he said. “I hate to see people in fourth or third deny a chop, and then all of a sudden, they’re out. And they get much less.”
Giardina also noted that he learned how to play poker at age five, with his father, though he got away from the game for decades later on. “My dad and I connected again when he was 75, and we’d go to the WSOP for eight years until he passed away. So anything I do in poker is probably because of him.”
About The Author
