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Season XV of the Heartland Poker Tour came to a close at the Hollywood Casino St. Louis, as Paul 'Walnuts' Bianchi topped a 353 player field to win the HPT $2,500 Championship Event and $181,874 in prize money.
'Feels great. Long time comin'.' Bianchi, a Chicago native who runs a cafe, told HPT Tournament Director Jeremy Smith after his victory. Bianchi has over $300,000 in lifetime tournament earnings prior to today's victory, including a victory in last season's $500 Seniors Championship at the Season XIV finale. In fact, that prior victory was the whole reason Bianchi was in town for the weekend.
'That's what got me out here! I played the seniors, busted, I satellite in this, sailed through it.' Bianchi's run through the main didn't go quite as smoothly as the satellite, however, as he was short-stacked for much of Day 2 play, starting the day with 41,600 in chips and hovering near the bottom of the counts all day long. '41,000 and went on for about six hours. Yesterday was a grind, a rough day. When you're short-stacked, you just play it like you see it. It was a long day.'
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Paul Bianchi infamously spun a $1,200 investment at the blackjack tables into a WSOP Main Event cash in 2014, but his plans for this windfall were much more reserved. 'I'm gonna rest for a while, take some time off and do my thing. Relax.'
With ten players returning and nine seats waiting for players at the nationally-televised final table, one player would have to bust before action would move to the main stage. Kevin Hopkins was the unfortunate bubble boy for the official final table when he ran his suited ace-seven into the aces of Paul Bianchi, setting the stage for the final table.
James Burns was unable to spin up his short stack, falling shortly after the final table commenced when his ace-queen ran into the ace-king of John Michalak. Two levels later, Canada's Bradley Smith lost a flip with pocket deuces to Hamid Izadi and his ace-seven to take eighth-place.
After Jason Darland busted a short time later in seventh, reigning HPT Season XIV Player of the Year Aaron Johnson got his last ten big blinds in preflop with king-nine, and ran into Michalak and his ace-king of clubs. Johnson, who finished sixth at the final table of the HPT Season XIV Championship, matched his run in this year's iteration of the event when he failed to find a nine.
Justin Coliny held the chip lead after Johnson's elimination, but two hands would spell the end of Coliny. First, Coliny attempted a big bluff against Bianchi, but Bianchi held trips and made the call to take half of Coliny's stack. A few hands later, Coliny made a flush on a double-paired board and committed his last twenty big blinds on the river, but Michalak held aces-full, leaving Coliny, who made his way into this tournament via satellite, walking out with a $40,327 payday for his efforts this weekend.
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The start of the day chip leader, Hamid Izadi, sent a chunk of his stack over to Bianchi after Izadi paid off a big river bet from Bianchi. A few hands later, Izadi went for a bluff with eight-five on a jack-ace-eight-jack board, but Christopher Audrain made a call for his last fifteen blinds with ace-nine and left Izadi with just one-and-a-half big blinds, which he lost the next hand. The affable poker pro from Georgia earned $53,769 for his second HPT final table of the season.
The chip stacks between the final three players saw Michalak holding a slight lead over Bianchi, and Audrain was the short stack, but still held 35 big blinds to work with. The trio traded the chip lead back and forth between each other for a few hours, no one able to stretch a huge lead over the other two players. Finally in Level 29 (50,000/100,000/100,000), Audrain got his last 2.3 million in on a ten-high flop, and Michalak called with a combo draw and an overcard. Audrain's pair held, and Michalak went down to under twenty big blinds.
Michalak was able to hang on for a bit longer, before he three-bet shoved over a Bianchi button open with ace-nine. Bianchi had the goods with a pair of queens, however, and Michalak's fourth HPT final table run ended in third place, the Cleveland, Ohio native's best finish so far on tour.
Bianchi started heads-up play with a 2:1 chip lead over Audrain, and the duo's boisterous rails seemed primed for a lengthy battle. Just twenty minutes into Level 30 (60,000/120,000/120,000), Audrain's ace-nine of spades was bested by the ace-queen of Bianchi, but Audrain found two spades on the flop to give him eleven outs to continue the battle, as Bianchi held the queen of spades. The turn and river were both black, but neither were a spade, and Audrain had to settle for $115,129 as a consolation prize.
'Well, he flopped a monster,' Bianchi said of his heads-up opponent. 'I had one of his spades, he's got nines, he's got spades. But it didn't come, I faded it. I've been there before, he had a good run.'
That does it for PokerNews's coverage of the HPT Season XV Championship. Congratulations to Paul Bianchi for the biggest win of his tournament career!
Article by Mo Nuwwarah of PokerNews:
Maurice Hawkins is best known as a master of the World Series of Poker Circuit, what with his 11 gold rings and former standing as the all-time leader until recently.
He showed he can get it done on the Heartland Poker Tour felt too, though, taking down HPT St. Charles $1,650 Main Event for $113,322. It's the seventh six-figure score for the boisterous pro.
The tournament, which took place on the outskirts of St. Louis, drew 347 entries over the course of its two starting flights, with 36 of those paid out. Josh 'JT' Turner, Chris Staats, Richard Bai and Mike Holm were some of those who made the money but fell short of the final table.
Hawkins ran into a hairy spot on the final two tables when he got turned aces up in against a flopped set of kings for the majority of his stack. Luckily for Hawkins, according to the live updates, he hit his two-outer on the river to avoid being left with 15 big blinds.
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Thanks in part to that, Hawkins made the final table with over 1.6 million at 10,000/20,000/20,000, second only to Ryan Julius' 1,827,000.
Final Table Action
Steve Graham was the first player to bust out at the final table, getting in a flip with sevens against the ace-king of HB Sablotny and dodging neither an ace nor a king.
Julius then busted a short-stacked Greg Wood, but the good run wouldn't last for him. He'd actually bust out next, losing most of his chips on a Qc8d6c flop when he bet-three-bet all in with nines and ran into Sablotny's Qd8s. The top two held and Julius dropped to about 10 big blinds.
Julius would lose those shoving Ah2h and getting isolated by Keith Heine and his KsQc, only to see a queen hit on the flop.
Three-time Circuit ring winner John Richards got himself in a good spot with kings all in against sevens held by Daniel Loizzo but a seven hit on the flop to leave Richards on only 20 big blinds. He was even shorter when he defended big blind with king-four and flopped top pair, only to run into a set of sevens flopped by Sablotny and bust in sixth.
Sablotny then sent Loizzo packing when ace-queen got there against pocket nines.
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James Burns was unable to spin up his short stack, falling shortly after the final table commenced when his ace-queen ran into the ace-king of John Michalak. Two levels later, Canada's Bradley Smith lost a flip with pocket deuces to Hamid Izadi and his ace-seven to take eighth-place.
After Jason Darland busted a short time later in seventh, reigning HPT Season XIV Player of the Year Aaron Johnson got his last ten big blinds in preflop with king-nine, and ran into Michalak and his ace-king of clubs. Johnson, who finished sixth at the final table of the HPT Season XIV Championship, matched his run in this year's iteration of the event when he failed to find a nine.
Justin Coliny held the chip lead after Johnson's elimination, but two hands would spell the end of Coliny. First, Coliny attempted a big bluff against Bianchi, but Bianchi held trips and made the call to take half of Coliny's stack. A few hands later, Coliny made a flush on a double-paired board and committed his last twenty big blinds on the river, but Michalak held aces-full, leaving Coliny, who made his way into this tournament via satellite, walking out with a $40,327 payday for his efforts this weekend.
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The start of the day chip leader, Hamid Izadi, sent a chunk of his stack over to Bianchi after Izadi paid off a big river bet from Bianchi. A few hands later, Izadi went for a bluff with eight-five on a jack-ace-eight-jack board, but Christopher Audrain made a call for his last fifteen blinds with ace-nine and left Izadi with just one-and-a-half big blinds, which he lost the next hand. The affable poker pro from Georgia earned $53,769 for his second HPT final table of the season.
The chip stacks between the final three players saw Michalak holding a slight lead over Bianchi, and Audrain was the short stack, but still held 35 big blinds to work with. The trio traded the chip lead back and forth between each other for a few hours, no one able to stretch a huge lead over the other two players. Finally in Level 29 (50,000/100,000/100,000), Audrain got his last 2.3 million in on a ten-high flop, and Michalak called with a combo draw and an overcard. Audrain's pair held, and Michalak went down to under twenty big blinds.
Michalak was able to hang on for a bit longer, before he three-bet shoved over a Bianchi button open with ace-nine. Bianchi had the goods with a pair of queens, however, and Michalak's fourth HPT final table run ended in third place, the Cleveland, Ohio native's best finish so far on tour.
Bianchi started heads-up play with a 2:1 chip lead over Audrain, and the duo's boisterous rails seemed primed for a lengthy battle. Just twenty minutes into Level 30 (60,000/120,000/120,000), Audrain's ace-nine of spades was bested by the ace-queen of Bianchi, but Audrain found two spades on the flop to give him eleven outs to continue the battle, as Bianchi held the queen of spades. The turn and river were both black, but neither were a spade, and Audrain had to settle for $115,129 as a consolation prize.
'Well, he flopped a monster,' Bianchi said of his heads-up opponent. 'I had one of his spades, he's got nines, he's got spades. But it didn't come, I faded it. I've been there before, he had a good run.'
That does it for PokerNews's coverage of the HPT Season XV Championship. Congratulations to Paul Bianchi for the biggest win of his tournament career!
Article by Mo Nuwwarah of PokerNews:
Maurice Hawkins is best known as a master of the World Series of Poker Circuit, what with his 11 gold rings and former standing as the all-time leader until recently.
He showed he can get it done on the Heartland Poker Tour felt too, though, taking down HPT St. Charles $1,650 Main Event for $113,322. It's the seventh six-figure score for the boisterous pro.
The tournament, which took place on the outskirts of St. Louis, drew 347 entries over the course of its two starting flights, with 36 of those paid out. Josh 'JT' Turner, Chris Staats, Richard Bai and Mike Holm were some of those who made the money but fell short of the final table.
Hawkins ran into a hairy spot on the final two tables when he got turned aces up in against a flopped set of kings for the majority of his stack. Luckily for Hawkins, according to the live updates, he hit his two-outer on the river to avoid being left with 15 big blinds.
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Thanks in part to that, Hawkins made the final table with over 1.6 million at 10,000/20,000/20,000, second only to Ryan Julius' 1,827,000.
Final Table Action
Steve Graham was the first player to bust out at the final table, getting in a flip with sevens against the ace-king of HB Sablotny and dodging neither an ace nor a king.
Julius then busted a short-stacked Greg Wood, but the good run wouldn't last for him. He'd actually bust out next, losing most of his chips on a Qc8d6c flop when he bet-three-bet all in with nines and ran into Sablotny's Qd8s. The top two held and Julius dropped to about 10 big blinds.
Julius would lose those shoving Ah2h and getting isolated by Keith Heine and his KsQc, only to see a queen hit on the flop.
Three-time Circuit ring winner John Richards got himself in a good spot with kings all in against sevens held by Daniel Loizzo but a seven hit on the flop to leave Richards on only 20 big blinds. He was even shorter when he defended big blind with king-four and flopped top pair, only to run into a set of sevens flopped by Sablotny and bust in sixth.
Sablotny then sent Loizzo packing when ace-queen got there against pocket nines.
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Former Mid-States Poker Tour champ Heine busted Alan Perry after that when ace-queen held against king-jack. He and Hawkins were basically tied three-handed, while Sablotny held half of the chips and over 100 big blinds.
Hawkins dropped down under 20 big blinds but then recouped his losses in a three-way all in where queen-jack got there against ace-give and tens. He then coolered Heine as they saw a board of 8h9h6c9d, with Heine bet-three-betting all in with 9c7c and Hawkins holding 9s8s for an unbeatable full house. Only a chop could save Heine, but he hit a worthless straight on the river.
Sablotny had the lead to start but the heads-up match would last over three hours, until only about 50 big blinds remained on the table. Finally, Hawkins flopped a straight and Sablotny turned aces up, missing on the river after he got stacks in to bow out in second for $71,743.
