Around 45,000 was in the pot as Jack Hardcastle and Shuofei Geng went to the river on a board of 6♣K♥10♦10♠3♠. Hardcastle then moved all in from the cutoff.
Geng, in the small blind, tanked for several minutes before eventually calling for 55,000. Hardcastle showed K♣Q♥ for two pair, but Geng had A♥K♠ and took the pot with his ace-kicker to earn the double up.
With three players seeing a board of K♦Q♠8♠ and around 12,000 in the middle, Guan Huang checked from the big blind and Stephen Mugar checked from the hijack. Adam Hendrix bet 4,000 from the cutoff and Huang called before Mugar moved all in for 20,500. Huang got out of the way before Hendrix called with a covering stack to put Mugar at risk.
Stephen Mugar: 8♥8♣
Adam Hendrix: A♠10♠
Mugar had flopped bottom set but Hendrix had plenty of outs in the form of a gutshot and the nut-flush draw. The 4♣ turn was a brick and the 4♠ river improved Mugar to a full house to double up through Hendrix.
Martin Zamani raised to 4,000 in early position and was called by Anthony Hu in the hijack, button Eric Medved, and big blind Nikolai Tulin.
The flop came 7♦6♦5♣ and Tulin led out for 4,000. Zamani called and Hu raised to 15,000. Medved then moved all in, Tulin called for 73,000, and both Zamani and Hu got out of the way.
Nikolai Tulin: 9♦8♦
Eric Medved: 9♠9♥
Tulin had flopped the nut straight to go with a flush draw, then improved to a straight flush on the 10♦ turn. The river was the 8♣ and Tulin doubled up.
In a blind on blind battle on the turn, Stephen Mathews led for 7,000 from the small blind and Luther Tran made the call in the big blind.
The completed board read K♦10♠2♦4♥2♠. Mathews led for a third time for 15,000. Luther took some time before he cut out a raise to 51,000. Mathews deliberated for about a minute before he flicked in the call. Luther tabled Q♥2♣ for rivered trips much to the distaste of Mathews who was left short after the hand.
Last year’s PokerStars North American Poker Tour Las Vegas $1,650 Main Event wrapped saw the final seven players from a 1,095-entry field return to battle it out at a live-streamed final table. After eight hours of play, it was poker dealer Sami Bechahed, whose wife was nine months pregnant at the time, emerging victorious to claim a $268,945 top prize and the first NAPT Main Event title in 12 years!
“(It took) a lot of patience. I don’t know what to say, I’m seriously so shaken,” Bechahed told PokerNews after the win. “It’s surreal to me with this stacked final table with (Sergio) Aido, (Nick) Schulman, (David) Coleman … very good players. I came out on top. It’s surreal.”
Bechahed started collecting live tournament cashes in July 2018 when the French-born poker dealer moved to the other side of the felt. He had already nabbed three six-figure scores in his five-year career and had $941,234 in prior tournament earnings.
“I came in as the chip leader, so I didn’t have to be intimidated by anybody,” he added. “I have a lot of mad respect for all of them, but I’m here to play poker. I’m mostly playing poker to have fun but I take it very seriously. So, I came here to have fun, play my best game, and got really lucky.”
2023 NAPT Las Vegas Main Event Final Table Results
