The Colorado Poker Championship series at Golden Gates saw excellent turnouts again for its December event. In the CPC8 main event, which sported a prize pool of more than $255K, Frank Yakubson won the title.
The Lakewood, Colo., resident earned almost $53K, coming out on top of a field of 261. He outlasted Nevada pro Bryan Devonshire, who finished second for more than $28K, in the $1,100 no-limit hold’em tournament.
High-roller package: Devonshire earned the CPC8’s high-roller package, with seats to all local main events, for his top-five finishes in big events. In addition to finishing second in the main event, Devonshire finished fifth in the $500 deepstack.
Top-money events: Outside of the main event, the tournaments with the biggest buy-ins were the $500 and $400 deepstacks. The former attracted 137 entrants and a prize pool of almost $59K. Daniel Simental was named the winner after a three-way chop with Christopher Hicks and Adam Wilbur. The three earned almost $12K each.
The $400 tournament attracted 145 entrants. Michael Field won the title and $11K, with Colorado’s Richard Monroe, who won the most recent Heartland Poker Tour event at Golden Gates, finishing second ($7,500).
Points leader: Brian Hartner finished CPC8 tops in points with 340, earning points in six tournaments, including a win for $2,445 in the second event and another win for $3,070 in the $200 deepstack turbo. Hartner earned an extra $3K for being points leader. Stuart Brown finished second with 327 points and Volodymyr Kondratenko finished third with 228 points, earning $2K and $1K, respectively.
Tournament of Champions: The TOC ended in a six-way chop, with Kondratenko earning $2K and the other five players splitting $1,695.
HPT RETURNS: The HPT doesn’t stay gone long from Golden Gates, given that it’s always one of the top stops on the tour. Locals, amateurs and pros will again vie for an HPT title Feb. 7-16.
One thing everyone participating will be hoping for is great weather, or at least good weather, given the past two events had to hold up through a blizzard and devastating rains, respectively, that made major roads to Black Hawk temporarily impassible. The event did well both times regardless, but the HPT has to be hoping for a nice break from inclement weather this time.
The February stop will be the 16th for the HPT. As noted above, Monroe won last September’s main event for more than $235K, much of which he donated to charities helping people displaced by the disastrous flooding.
— Email Rick Gershman at rickgershman@gmail.com.
