20th April saw Justin Young beat Garrett Greer, to become the champion in the World Poker Tour (WPT) Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown, which was held in the city of Hollywood in Florida. The odds did not seem favorable for Young in the beginning, and it was not lost on fans that he had lost a WPT final table not so long before. On top of it, he found himself playing in a table of ten instead of the anticipated six. Circumstances were beyond his control when, on Wednesday, instead of the event starting with a six handed WPT table as the final is officially meant to have, ten players showed up.
And even then, Young did not rank well in terms of chips, as he was in the lower half of the list of ten. The poker player who began with the highest chips advantage at that final table was Hyoung Chae, who had over 6.2 million chips. Others who beat Young in chips count as the poker event began included Tim Reilly; Ben Tarzia; and Matt Haugen. Another oddity of the day was that Young lagged in chips count together with other respected poker players like Cate Hall and Garrett Greer. Possibly that mix of line-up contributed to making the final table play even more interesting.
Foxen and Hall Fall Early
Within 4hrs and having taken just eight hands into the play for the day, William Foxen was taken out by Reilly. To be eliminated next from this interesting poker event was Hall, and so he held 9th position, after being eliminated by Soverel. However, it was not all disappointing for this avid poker player who has stood well in a men-dominated arena, as she took away a respectable sum of $65,404 as her prize. After Hall left the table, the game calmed down a little, with the remaining poker competitors playing cautiously in a bid to remain seated amongst the last six, a prestigious place to be in a poker tournament as big as the WPT. The poker games involving the final six are normally broadcast on Live TV where millions of poker lovers get to enjoy the game and route for favorites.
Plotnilov and Soverel Leave Next
The game of poker is, definitely, not easy to predict with certainty. Next to leave the poker table was Plotnikov and then Soverel, and that was after the brief period of calm. The poker player who eliminated Plotnikov was Chae and the one who knocked off Soverel was Tarzia. Play and eliminations continued with enthusiasm, and soon Haugen was leading the pack, with other players like Chae and Tarzia giving him a run for his money. Young, too, was in hot pursuit. It was a tantalizing game of poker, as Chae took the lead in the official final table’s first hand. All the participants made the event highly vibrant, and at the 26th hand, Young took the lead. He got poker fans glued to the play as he held this lead up to the 50th hand and beyond.
Signs of the game advancing to its final stage became evident when Young, in his great poker play of the day, eliminated Haugen. Greer and Chae seemed to size up each other in their play, although it soon began to appear like Chae had an edge. However, the tables seemed to turn against Chae as he lost a sizeable amount of chips in the hands of Greer. Finally, it was Young who got rid of Chae in this tantalizing part of the poker event, on the 150th hand. From this point henceforth, Young dominated the game and beat Greer to take the championship in this much watched poker tournament.