The Heartland Poker Tour rolled into Soaring Eagle Casino in Mount Pleasant on Nov. 14-23 for its final trip to Michigan in 2014. More than 440 players generated a $666,600 prize pool as David Gulfreund of Chicag captured the historic title and $156,649.
It was Gulfreund’s fourth HPT final table in about three years, each time beating his previous run. He faced off against Reginald Roberts of Springfield, Mo., who was at his fifth HPT final table and looking for his third championship in the past four years. The long heads-up fight finally came to an end when an ace on the river gave Gulfreund’s A-8 the victory over Roberts’ J-J. Roberts settled for $96,657.
Former World Series of Poker champ Joe Cada made his second final table at the HPT in Michigan. Cada finished eighth for $17,998 when his K-K could not hold up against the A-10 of Vincent Fiorenza of Oviedo, Fla. Fiorenza was looking for his second HPT win but finished fifth ($32,663).
Michael O’Neil of Royal Oak was third ($63,327) followed by Cuong Tran of Midland ($43,996). James Wetherell of Coleman was sixth ($25,331), Antoinette Fiorenza of Daytona Beach, Fla., was seventh ($21,931) and Yaroob Kaskorkis of Grand Rapids finished ninth ($14,665).
Soaring Eagle ran a $300, two-day event the week before the HPT main event, attracting 415 runners as Russ Potts took the win and $25,015.
— Email Scott at anteupscottm@gmail.com.
