Dan Wagner from West Seneca was crowned the latest Card Player Poker Tour champion. The player outlasted a field of 300 entries to earn the coveted first-place prize of $64,882, the tournament trophy, and the accolades that every winner deserves.
Wagner emerged as the winner of the 2016 Card Player Poker Tour Seneca Fall Poker Classic $1,000 Main Event, a four-day tournament played on November 11-14. The player entered into the official final table as the chip leader. At the time nine-handed play started, Wagner was in possession of 30% of all chips in play.
Over the course of the tournament’s final table, the soon-to-become-champion progressed very well, accumulating an even bigger stack. Wagner eliminated Veerab Zakarian in 3rd place to set the heads-up match against Cameron Bartolotta and start the duel with a 5:1 chip advantage over his last remaining opponent.
Wagner gave Bartolotta almost no chance to improve. The latter managed to accumulate a more considerable stack at a certain point but it did not last long. Wagner regained his momentum almost immediately and eventually left his opponent with around 1.3 million at the time the final hand for the day and the tournament as a whole occurred.
And here is how that last hand went down. Wagner bet 125,000 from the button, with blinds standing at 25,000/50,000. Bartolotta shoved from the big blind to see his opponent snap-call with [Qs][Qc]. Bartolotta, in turn, tabled [As][9c]. The [Jh][5h][3c][9s][10s] appeared on the board. There was nothing left for Bartolotta but to shake hands with his opponent and to leave as the tournament’s runner-up with a payout of $40,781.
As already mentioned, Veerab Zakarian took 3rd place in the event for $29,394. Mark Allott scooped a $21,714 for a fourth-place finish. Nicholas Potwora finished 5th, good for $16,153. Jay Clark collected a payout of $12,181 for his 6th place. Sean Gomez took 7th place for $9,533 in prize money. Peter Bogulski finished 8th for $7,415. Brian Bowen hit the rail in 9th place for $5,958.
The 2016 CPPT Seneca Fall Poker Classic $1,000 Main Event attracted quite a lot of attention, with local players and ones from other parts of the US entering the tournament. As many as 300 entries registered for the event, generating an overall prize pool of $264,810.
Including his most recent victory, Wagner now has more than $330,000 in live tournament earnings. A second-place finish in a 2015 Fallsview Poker Classic Niagara Falls C$1,100 secured the player with his largest live cash of C$135,977 ($109,114). Earlier this year, Wagner took 5th place in the third edition of The Venetian Casino $1,100 No-Limit Hold’em Deep Stack Extravaganza for a payout of $68,840.
