The Heartland Poker Tour No-Limit Hold’em Main Event, held at the Thunder Valley Casino Resort between January 24 and January 26, has just announced its winner. Poker player Nick Shkolnik was the one to emerge victorious after he eliminated four of all nine players who took part in the final table.
He captured the amount of $159,599 of the entire prize pool, which is his biggest winning from a live tournament.
As already mentioned, a total of nine players took part in the final table play. It began with Michael Riddle as being a chip leader and the only player to hold more than 2 million in chips.
Jared Griener was the first to leave the final table. His cards could not hold up against those of Hop ‘Ricky’ Lay and he was sent to ninth position. Griener received $13,879 of the total prize pool.
Soon, he was followed by Brett Murray. Being the short stack, Murray was hoping for a miracle to stay in the game. However, the miracle did not happen and the player was defeated by Shkolnik. He was paid $17,349 for his eighth place.
Mark Violetti was the next to be sent home by the soon-to-be-champion.
About an hour later, Lay and Riddle faced each other. Riddle, however, could not stand a chance against his opponent and left the final table. He finished sixth and was paid the amount $26,023 for his performance.
There were only five players left and it took three levels of play before the next elimination. Michael Hinde and James Colson became Shkolnik’s next victims. They finished fifth and fourth and received the amounts of $33,656 and $44,968 respectively.
Thus, Tom West, Hop ‘Ricky’ Lay, Nick Shkolnik were the last three players left on the final table. The three-handed play, however, lasted only several hands. Lay quickly eliminated West to face Shkolnik in a heads-up play. West’s third position secured him with $64,676 of the entire prize pool.
At the beginning of the heads-up play, Shkolnik was holding 7.335 million in chips and his opponent had 7.015 million.
Lay had pocket sevens and Shkolnik had pocket eights on what turned out to be the final hand. The board showed [Ks][Qh][5s][4d][Kd] and the name of the champion became clear.
Lay took $97,569 for his runner-up finish. And as already mentioned, Shkolnik took $159,599 for his excellent performance.
Minutes after his big victory, he shared with interviewers that this achievement meant a lot to him. He said that he had worked really hard and was glad that this had finally paid off.
