The final Main Event of the 2010-2011 World Series of Poker Circuit season is in the books. A total of 382 players turned up with $1,600 to spend on Monday, and three days later, a champion has been crowned. Emerging from the unusually quick final table with all the chips was Jonathan Poche, a 29-year-old poker pro from nearby St. Martinville, Louisiana.
Day 3 dawned with ten players after a stalemate on Day 2 forced play to be called around 2:00 a.m. When everyone returned twelve hours later, the action was still hard to come by for a while. It took more than an hour to find the first big confrontation, and it was the self-proclaimed "man of leisure" Lance Craig who fell victim. It took a serious cooler to break the deadlock. Craig confidently stuck his money in with
Once Craig departed, the floodgates seemed to open. Just a few minutes later, the elder of the table, Jim McBride dropped out next. He had less than 15 big blinds when he was eliminated with
The next man to fall was one of the betting favorites. Even with a middling stack as was the case today, Matt Waxman knows his way around the table, and he was the most accomplished player in the room until his elimination in eighth place. Waxman was whittled all the way down to just five big blinds when he stuck it in with
The chips were passed back and forth for the rest of the level until another flurry of action broke out. Billie Payne was eliminated in seventh place when his
Todd Wood managed to retake the lead during four-handed play, but Josh Evans soon wrestled it away. Wood made a bit of a misstep when he was committed with
Evans and Wood were battling for the bottom spot by that point, and Evans’
The heads-up match began with the chip stacks nearly even, but every big pot went to Poche’s corner during the quick scrum. Within an hour, Toye had fallen from 3.5 million to just 860,000, and the last of his chips went into the middle preflop with
As straight-forward as that story reads, it was something of an unusual final table. The best hand held up in every all-in showdown — how often can that be said? — and the two most accomplished players were out within the first two levels. In the end, it was Poche, playing at his first career final table and sitting quietly alone with all the chips stacked neatly in front of him. His timing was impeccable Wednesday, and he certainly handled the setting and the pressure with admirable confidence. Formerly an oil field engineer, Poche has struck it rich in New Orleans, locking up a seat in the National Championship, a new piece of jewelry, and $121,017 in cash. Congrats to the new champ!
Place | Player | Prize |
---|---|---|
1 | Jonathan Poche | $121,017 |
2 | Bobby Toye | $74,783 |
3 | Josh Evans | $54,644 |
4 | Todd Wood | $40,573 |
5 | Scott Zakheim | $30,595 |
6 | Jake Bazeley | $23,416 |
7 | Billie Payine | $18,185 |
8 | Matt Waxman | $14,324 |
9 | James McBride | $11,441 |
10 | Lance Craig | $9,263 |
That’s all from the Main Event, but we’re just getting started in New Orleans. The $10,000 Southern Regional Championship begins at 1200 CDT (1900 GMT) on Thursday, with four great days of poker in store. Follow us on Twitter, too!