James Galloway Wins WPO Event #4: $400 Mystery Bounty for $38,128!
After a crazy and chaotic day of wild Houston poker, the 146 players that returned from a total field of 1,276 have been whittled down to one man left standing. When the dust settled, it was James Galloway who claimed the victory in the Champions Club Winter Poker Open $400 Mystery Bounty.
Galloway completed his night with a heads-up win over runner-up Jonathan Park when his flopped pair held up against Park’s flush draw and two over cards. For the win, Galloway claimed $38,128 and the champions’ trophy, while Park took home $24,378 for his second-place finish.
Event #4: $400 Mystery Bounty Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | James Galloway | $38,128 |
| 2 | Jonathan Park | $24,378 |
| 3 | Mustapha Tokko | $18,804 |
| 4 | Surrinder Ahluwalia | $12,600 |
| 5 | Derek Normand | $9,900 |
| 6 | Tai Vo | $7,800 |
| 7 | Jason Gooch | $6,200 |
| 8 | Sanad Dahbour | $5,100 |
| 9 | Ben Thomas | $4,200 |
Galloway is no stranger to final tables, or trophies for that matter, as the Waco native has been on quite the run. Last March he took down a $300 No-Limit event at The Lodge for $25,581, followed by a first-place finish in the $10,000 No Limit Hold'em - Six-Max for $176,720 at the same location.
Galloway really caught momentum late in the evening when he eliminated Jeffrey Nowling on the final table bubble when his ace-kicked trumped the queen-jack of Nowling when he hit an ace on the river. Because of that hand, he came into the final table ranked third in chips and was able to maneuver his way to the finish line.
Action of the Day
The room was abuzz with excitement throughout the day as players took their shots at pulling the bounties, with all eyes set on the grand prize of $25,000. Halfway through the day, it was finally Ben Thomas who drew the big one, much to the disappointment of the room. There were also two worth $10,000, and the first was pulled by Ahmad Mohassel, and the second was chopped between Park and Galloway before heads-up play. Another hot hand belonged to Carson Wieland, who ran up an impressive stack and managed to pull not one, but two $5,000 bounties to go along with $2,300 for his 17th-place finish.
Another player who ran up a stack was Will Leffingwell, who was chip leading for a majority of the day until he was felted when he moved all in with pocket eights against the ace-queen and ace-queen of Park and Xiao Probst, but a queen came on the flop to send him out in 16th. He was also one of the players that pulled a $5,000 bounty, so it was a nice consolation prize.
Final Table
As mentioned above, the field was trimmed to the final nine when Nowling was sent to the rail by Galloway, and leading the way was Derek Normand, followed closely by Park. As with the rest of the tournament, the action stayed hot and heavy from the jump as several players were eliminated within the first level on the stream. Thomas (9th) and Sanad Dahbour (8th) were the first players to go as they both fell to Surrinder Ahluwalia who held aces against the kings of Thomas and the ace-king of Dahbour.
Next to go was Jason Gooch, who moved in with sevens but couldn’t fade the pesky ace of Galloway when he called with ace-eight. Coming in sixth was Tai Vo, who got it in with king-ten but failed to improve against the ace-queen of Park, who won the pot with just ace-high.
One of the more talkative players in Houston poker, Normand, met his end in fifth when he flopped an open-ended straight draw with king-six on a four-five-seven board and moved in against Galloway, who called with a pocket pair of eights. A six came on the turn to give Galloway the straight Normand was looking for and left him drawing dead to a chop that failed to come.
The action finally started to slow down, but just a hair, as the pay jumps came into effect, and it was a good 40 minutes before Ahluwalia found the door when he flopped a pair of queens and moved in, but he was in second place to Galloway who had flopped an ace.
Mustapha ‘Moe’ Tokko was eliminated in third place when he moved in with king-queen suited against the ace-jack suited that belonged to Galloway. Both an ace and a king appeared on the flop, but Tokko failed to improve on the runout and was eliminated in 3rd place.
Heads-up play between Park and Galloway lasted for only 20 minutes as Galloway quickly widened his 3:2 chip lead to almost 3:1. All of the chips then got into the middle on an all-diamond flop with Park holding ace-jack with the jack of diamonds while Galloway just had a pair of fives. No diamond, ace, or jack came on the turn or river, and Galloway scooped the pot with his pair of fives, eliminating Park as the runner-up and crowning him the champion.
Up Next: Main Event!
With this win, another tournament here at Champions Club in Houston, Texas, is in the books, but there is still much more in store as the $1,500- $1 Million GTD Main Event kicked off today with Day 1a and will be running until the 19th. As always, stay tuned into PokerNews, as we will be the only place to get all of the action at the Champions Club Winter Poker Open!
