South MS player sits with best poker players and emerges with massive payday
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Biloxi player Jon Bergeron won Beau Rivage Heater event, pocketing $242,000.
- South Mississippi casinos recorded $1.9M in $100K-plus jackpots in first 12 days.
- Beau Rivage Heater runs through July 19 with $5.5M in guaranteed prize pools.
Some of the best poker players in the country are at the Beau Rivage Resort and Casino in Biloxi through Jan. 19, and a local player showed he wasn’t intimidated by the skill in the room.
Event No. 2 was the big opening event and seated at the final table were players from Louisiana, Georgia, Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Florida — and Jon Bergeron, whose home is right there in Biloxi.
The game played from 1/8-1/11, and they finished in the early hours of 1/12
They had already outplayed more than 5,000 others in the tournament January 8-11 to win their seat at the final table and Bergeron had home-casino advantage.
Early morning on Monday, Jan. 12, Bergeron showed his lucky hand, a queen of hearts and a six of clubs. That was good to win a coveted 2026 Beau Rivage Heater belt and collect his winnings of more than $242,000. That’s more than 600 times his investment to buy into the game.
“I’m still a bit shocked,” Bergeron said in an interview after the win. This tournament was “by far the biggest win I’ve ever had,” he said. He was deciding whether to call his boss and say he was taking the day off, or going in and collecting some accolades from his co-workers.
The Biloxi player’s big win follows three huge jackpots won Jan. 5-7 at Coast casinos, one of them won by Steven A. (no last name provided) of Gulfport at Island View Casino in Gulfport and another by an unidentified Mississippi player at Treasure Bay Casino in Biloxi. The third big win of the week came at the Beau Rivage, where a player from Baton Rouge won $1,132,124 playing a Wheel of Fortune progressive slot machine.
That’s $1.9 million in $100,000-plus jackpots in the first 12 days of the year at South Mississippi casinos, with another big week of poker action ahead.
The Beau Rivage Heater continues through July 19 with more than $5.5 million in guaranteed prize pools and 87 tables.
The Main Event is Jan. 15-19 and has a $1,200 buy-in and $1,500,000 guaranteed prize pool.
“The Heater is bigger and hotter than ever,” said Adam Nash, the poker room manager at the Beau Rivage. “We have even expanded tournament play into two ballroom settings,” he said, and has three different events with guaranteed prize pools of $1 million or more.
Results are posted in real time at gulfcoastpoker.net or its social media pages.
This story was originally published January 14, 2026 at 11:50 AM.
