Jarod Minghini is a familiar face around Peppermill Reno and TVPokerRoom whenever cards are being pitched. From winning five WSOP Circuit Rings and playing the biggest events around the region, Jarod is a regular presence and always a fun person to have at a table.
With Another Deep Run for Minghini, Jarod earned the biggest cash of his career Tuesday by finishing 8th in the 2025 WSOP Main Event Final Table.
Jarod can normally be found at events with a group of tournament regulars including Scott Stewart – the current WPT World Champion – WPT Rolling Thunder Champ Shawn Daniels and TVPokerRoom National Ambassador Tyler Patterson, who won a WSOP bracelet earlier this summer in the $3,000 6-Max. Tyler, Stu and Shawn were in Las Vegas with Jarod, along with Vinny Moscati, Jesse Rockowitz, Cleveland Dann Turner, Erle Mankin, Brett Murray, Gerry Morrell, Dan O’Brien and pretty much the entire cast and crew of the infamous Jimmy’s Room games at Peppermill Reno. Jimmy was there himself, giving the rail a family feel.
Stu and Jarod are best friends who have traveled together across the country to poker tournaments for years, and these poker road roommates had a chance to be part of one of the best stories in the history of the game. A WSOP Main Event title this week for Jarod would have set the current WPT World Champion and the current WSOP World Champion as best-friend travel partners.
Jarod’s first WSOP Circuit ring was earned in 2018 at TVPokerRoom when he won a PLO Ring. He followed up in 2019 by winning an 8-Max NLH Ring at TVPokerRoom and added another PLO ring in 2023.
Now up to five WSOP Circuit Rings, Jarod’s most memorable win was the most emotional one, by far. CO-owner with his brother Bobby of Tahoe Wakebusters – offering boating rentals on Lake Tahoe – Jarod was preparing to play the 2022 WSOP Circuit Series in Lake Tahoe when Bobby was killed in an accident just weeks before the series start. Dedicating his Main Event play to Bobby, Jarod went on to not just final table the event, but to win the Main Event ring – and close out that final table in barely two hours.
Aside from poker and the Lake Tahoe business, Bobby and Jarod were professional snowboarders from the time they were teenagers. After his WSOP Circuit Tahoe Main Event win, Jarod started the Bobby Minghini Foundation to help introduce skiing and snowboarding to youth around the US.
“Growing up in West Virginia we both grew up very poor and it was really hard to make ends meet and to do all these competitions,” Jarod told then-WSOP Reporter Mike Patrick. “My mother just worked her ass off to send us all over the world, but we stayed very broke because of it. This foundation is going to help kids that are underprivileged skiers and snowboarders that need help in funding.”
“We just wanted to help younger kids get out on the mountain,” he added on a recent podcast.
Jarod’s Main Event came to a close when he called off his stacks with Ace-Queen against a shove from Kenny Haalaert with Fours. The board did not cooperate, and Jarod cashed for a career-best $1,250,000. Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi went on to win the Main Event, earning $10 Million FTW.
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