Jimmy Poper Wins WPTDeepStacks Big Stax 1500 After Four-Way Chop

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Feb 28, 2017 3 min read

Jimmy Poper chopped WPTDeepStacks Big Stax 1500 at Parx Casino in Pennsylvania with three of the East Coast's most recognizable regulars.

Poper navigated past DJ MacKinnon, Justin Liberto and Phil Hui after the four-handed deal to win the trophy and $20,000, according to Hui's Twitter feed, with the officially reported first-place prize being $201,991 for topping the field of 660 entries.

Official Final Table Results

_{Officially reported payouts don't reflect four-way final table deal}

The tournament paid out to 71 places. Alex Rocha, Roland Israelashvili, Andy Frankenberger, Mike Dentale, Jose Montes, Mike Wang, Tristan Wade, Victor Ramdin and Loni Harwood were some of the players who cashed on the way to the final table.

Matthew Mendez, who won the $2,500 High Roller event in this series last year, was eliminated on the unofficial final table bubble when he lost a race with fives to Robert Vernarec's ace-queen on a sick 4?3?3?2?Q? runout, according to the live updates.

Jay Sharon held the chip lead heading into the official final table, although it was, remarkably, less chips than he started the final day with. It took awhile for the first elimination, but Vernarec eventually shoved about 15 big blinds in with A?8? over a raise from Thomas Maguire, who called with A?J? and scored the first knockout.

Poper endured some swings, first making a flush on Liberto for a big pot but then bluffing a chunk off to Sharon after missing a flush draw on a two-paired board against Sharon's underfull. Rafaello Locatelli then decided to bluff all in on the river with eights against Poper on a board of 10?9?6?J?4?, but Poper called the shove with K?Q? for the nut straight to bust Locatelli.

Hui woke up with ace-queen when Jason Ritchie shoved in the small blind for 20 big blinds with ace-ten and flopped a queen to secure an elimination.

After that, another period of chips changing hands without an elimination ensued. Finally, Hui broke the stalemate and took the lead in the process when he opened with A?K? on the button and busted Sharon, who shoved in with A?9? in the big blind for just under 20 big blinds. A king on the flop all but ended it.

With five left, Maguire decided to get cute and limp his ace-queen in the small blind, but stacks were destined to head to the middle since Poper had jacks in the big and raised. The flip went Poper's way, which led to the four-handed deal.

There was still money left to play for, though. Hui took a beat when his jacks fell to the tens of MacKinnon all in preflop and he couldn't recover, busting in fourth.

Poper won a flip with A?9? against MacKinnon's deuces for his tournament life to stay afloat as a nine hit the board.

Then, Liberto and MacKinnon both flopped top pair on 7?6?2?, but MacKinnon's ace kicker bested Liberto's nine to send the bracelet winner out in third.

MacKinnon and Poper had similar stacks going heads up, and they didn't take long to get them in the middle. Poper had aces against MacKinnon's fives and a five hit the turn to give MacKinnon a set. However, Poper found a miracle ace on the river to take a 7-1 lead. Though MacKinnon found a double, he ultimately lost a final race when Poper flopped a set of fours against his J?10? for the win.

_{Photo courtesy of WPT}

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