The poker room at Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel is currently the gathering place of players from New York and the rest of the nation who would like to take part in any of the tournaments featured on the ongoing 2016 Seneca Niagara Falls Summer Slam’s schedule. Mike Latour, an occasional player and account executive, has just won one such event to collect a first-place prize of $21,246 and a shiny tournament trophy.
Latour topped the field of the $200 No-Limit Hold’em with a guaranteed prize pool of $50,000. Event #2 on the poker festival’s schedule attracted a massive field of 563 entries who generated the ultimate prize pool of $92,378. The top 54 finishers received a share of the money. The tournament ran from July 22-24 and featured four starting flights in two days and one more day of play.
As mentioned above, Latour is entering various tournaments occasionally. Including last night’s victory, the player has collected a little more than $50,000 in live tournament winnings. Prior to Black Friday, the 31-year-old account executive from Syracuse, New York played poker online for a living.
Latour emerged from the short stack at the beginning of nine-handed play to become the eventual winner. The player faced Rodolfo Navas heads-up and did not take long to defeat his last standing opponent. On the very last hand in play, Latour bet 200,000 and Navas shoved all in. Latour called with [Kd][Kc] against his opponent’s [Ks][Jc]. The board ran out [6s][Ac][3d]4c][Qd] and Latour’s pair held to secure him with the pot and the title.
Busted in 2nd place, Navas took home $12,988. Thomas Mader finished 3rd in the event for $8,610. Matt Devins collected $5,986 for his fourth-place finish. Abe Reinhardt took 5th place for a payout of $4,480.
John Huening finished 6th for $3,372. Tomasz Werstler scooped $2,818 for taking 7th place. John Stempein received $2,309 for his 8th place. Blake Napierala was paid $1,940 for rounding out the official nine-handed final table.
Seneca Niagara Falls Summer Slam will be running through July 31. The whole festival features 10 different events, with the $600 Main Event being the most highly anticipated one. It will take place from July 29-31 and will feature a guaranteed prize pool of $100,000.
