The inaugural WPT Choctaw Main Event held at Choctaw Casino Resort in Durant, Oklahoma was completed a few hours ago with Jason Brin emerging victorious to become the first Season XIV champion and to add $682,975 to his poker bankroll.
The Choctaw Main Event with a buy-in fee of $3,500 and a guaranteed prize pool of $2 million kicked off on July 31. It featured two starting flights and attracted a total of 1,175 entries.
Day 4 of the event saw 6 players returning to play the final table. And given the players who came back for this final day of the Main Event, it promised to be an extremely exciting one. Darren Elias attempted to capture his third WPT title in a year, after he topped the fields of the WPT Borgata Main Event in September 2014 and the WPT Caribbean one in November 2014.
Andy Hwang, yet another WPT Champions Club member, hoped to collect his second-ever WPT title. Last but not least, female poker player Mina Greco was determined to make history and become the first-ever woman to win an open WPT tournament.
Eventually, Brin emerged as the winner of the event, despite the tough competition. He was extremely careful and was almost never the first to act. However, in the rare occasions when he decided to make the first step, he usually took down the pot.
The six-handed final table started with Hwang as the leader with a stack of 10,935,000 chips. He was followed by Elias with 8,130,000 and Alex Lynskey with 5,925,000. The eventual champion started 5th in chips with a total of 2,390,000.
Once play started, it took 71 hands before the first player was eliminated. Lynskey left the final table after he could not stand a chance against Brin. The player received $135,504 for his 6th place in the Main Event.
Only five hands later, Greco, too, had to leave the final table. Her share of the prize pool amounted to $167,691. On Hand 97, Jake Schindler shoved all his chips in but could not hold it up against Hwang. He scooped $224,913 for his 4th place in the tournament.
Three-handed play extended late into the night and turned out to be the longest one in WPT’s history. It took almost 130 hands before another player left the final table. Eventually, Elias was the next to go. His elimination occurred on Hand 222. The player received $303,593 for his 3rd place and set up the final heads-up duel between Hwang and Brin.
It started with Hwang holding almost two times more chips than his opponent. However, it took Brin 29 hands to take the lead and maintain it until the very end. Hand 284 turned out to be the last one in play. Brin shoved all-in pre-flop with [Kd][8c] against his opponent’s [Qd][Jh]. The board ran out [4h][3c][2d][5h][10c] and thus secured Brin with the title. Hwang took home $468,105 for his runner-up finish.
Brin, on the other hand, was awarded $682,975, which also includes a $15,400 seat into the WPT World Championship, a special Hublot watch, a pair of gold Monster 24K Headphones, and a tournament trophy.
WPT will next travel to the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles for the WPT Legends of Poker tournament, which is set to be held from August 29 to September 4.
