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The short-deck format is one of the biggest rages in live tournament poker these days and it was little surprise that the 2019 US Poker Open had a $10K Short Deck event on its roster. With 42 entries, the event enjoyed an action-packed run over two days where Sean Winter (cover image) eventually emerged victorious.
Winter has been in top form at the series with three final table finishes coming into this event and looks like the fourth time was the charm for Winter! Along with the title, he banked $151,200 for his efforts.
For the uninitiated, the short deck format offers some interesting deviations from the standard NLH format. Deuces to fives are removed from the deck where Aces double up as fives. Event the hand rankings differ as a flush beats a full house and a three-of-a-kind is better than a straight.
Winter had a line-up of accomplished players to content with on the final table and his competition included the likes of Stephen Chidwick, Ben Lamb, Seth Davies, Ben Yu and David Peters. Undeterred, despite starting off on the final table as one of the shorter stacks, Winter clawed his way up to eventually emerge victorious. In addition to the title, he added a valuable 200 points to his name in the 2019 US Poker Open Championship race.
“Three of the tournaments I knew how to play the games, this one I was just trying to figure it out on the fly,” Winter said, post his win.
With the win, the American pro added another big score to his poker resume that already shines bright with over $11.5 Million in career winnings.
“Everything is just flowing well. I’m focused, feeling mentally strong and I’m getting lucky in the right spots and getting away with things in others,” Winter added.“I probably need another first or second place because I think Stevie is going to do well the rest of the series. I haven’t really put much thought into it until this point and I might need 600 points to win this thing.”
With a total prize pool of $420,000 to go around, the field whittled down to the final six players as Day 1 ended. Notables seen hitting the rail included Justin Bonomo, Anthony Zinno, Alex Foxen, Sam Soverel, Kristen Bicknell, Phil Hellmuth, Cary Katz, Koray Aldemir and Manig Loeser.
Jerry Robinson lost out on his chance of collecting his third score at the series as he hit the rail on the money bubble when his king-ten failed to catch up to David Peters’ pocket jacks.
With Robinson gone the remaining six players were guaranteed at least $25,200 in prize money. Peters bagged the overnight chip lead coming into the final day with 5,450,000 in chips.
Final Table Chip Counts
Final Table Recap
Stephen Chidwick was another player making a third final table appearance in the series, but as it turned out he was the first to fall from the final table. After Chidwick`s elimination in sixth place, Ben Yu and Ben Lamb hit the rail in fifth and fourth place respectively.
Three-handed play went on for a while before Seth Davies moved all in from the cutoff for 3.525 Million with and Winter who held jammed from the button. The flop gave Winter two-pair and after failing to connect on the turn and the river, Davies was eliminated in third place.
The heads-up match between David Peters and Winter was a short affair and soon the final hand was dealt. Winter moved all-in and Peters made the call for his last 2.41 Million from the button.
Sean Winter
David Peters
Winter hit two-pair on the flop to take the lead. For Peters, the turn got him a straight draw but that was how far he would go as the on the river crowned Winter the champion!
Final Table Results (USD)
Content & Image Courtesy: PokerNews/Poker Central
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