After three long days of grinding, the final day of Parx Big Stax 1100 has arrived. It's time for Day 3 and time for a champion to be crowned.
The field has already been whittled to a final table, as nine players remain in contention. Grigoriy Shvarts has the chip lead, but the structure is very slow and deep, so there will be plenty of time for other contenders to build up and overtake him. His 5.6 million represents about 30% of the chips in play, so he's certainly in good position.
Thomas Parkes and AJ Jamil are next in the counts as the only two players north of 3 million. Rafael Yaraliyev also has a very healthy stack of just over 2 million. After that, a slew of players sit between 10 and 31 big blinds, so they'll be looking to get involved early.
Here's how the seating shakes out:
Seat
Player
Stack
1
AJ Jamil
3,100,000
2
Rafal Kordys
1,010,000
3
Rafael Yaraliyev
2,060,000
4
Peter Ippolito
465,000
5
Thomas Parkes
3,680,000
6
David Whitnah
1,110,000
7
Cody Heuschkel
360,000
8
Grigoriy Shvarts
5,600,000
9
Hal Rotholz
1,235,000
Everyone has $8,255 locked up and there's right around 10 times that up top, along with a trophy and the chance to join the list of Parx champions. Play resumes with blinds of 20,000/40,000/40,000 and slowly moves up with each level lasting 90 minutes. The big blind ante will be halved at four-handed play.
A field of 370 has been reduced to these nine. Stay tuned to PokerNews starting at noon local time to see who is the last player standing.
Cody Heuschkel moved all in for 620,000 second to act and Hal Rotholz reshoved over him from a couple of seats over, folding out the rest of the players.
Cody Heuschkel:
Hal Rotholz:
The flop kept things interesting, as did the turn. A was a total brick on the river, though, and Heuschkel missed his numerous outs to hit the rail in ninth.
David Whitnah shoved for 360,000 in the hijack. Grigoriy Shvarts called and showed after the other players folded. Whitnah had and looked good on the board until the river fell.
Grigoriy Shvarts opened for 120,000 early, Hal Rotholz called on his left and Rafal Kordys jammed in the cutoff. It was 1,080,000 and Shvarts reshoved after getting the count. Rotholz took a deep breath and stood up but tossed into the middle after about 15 seconds.
Grigoriy Shvarts:
Rafal Kordys:
Kordys lived by the three-outer a bit ago but would this time be bitten by it was flopped. The turn and river changed nothing and Kordys was forced to accept a seventh-place payout.
After a raising war, Peter Ippolito was all in on the button with against Thomas Parkes' from the small blind. The had Parkes in need on the river but the dealer delivered with the .
Stacks were counted down and Ippolito's 2.7 million or so was covered by Parkes.
Hal Rotholz was facing a bet of 600,000, nearly all of his stack, against Thomas Parkes. The board read and Rotholz opted to call but couldn't beat for aces up. He flicked in a and was left with one big blind.
Rotholz quadrupled that up the first hand with , hitting a jack on the river against and . Then, he doubled up with over Grigoriye Shvarts' , flopping a six.
Finally, he met his end with , as Shvarts set him at risk with . Both players missed the board and Rotholz finally headed for payouts.
From the sound of the preflop action, it seemed Thomas Parkes completed the blind and Grigoriy Shvarts made it 280,000. Parkes came back with 550,000 and Shvarts called to see the flop. Parkes bet 375,000 and Shvarts called. On the , Parkes fired again for 750,000 and Shvarts called. The river was the and Parkes announced all in.
Shvarts beat him to the pot and showed for a full house. Parkes revealed and hit the rail in third.
Grigoriy Shvarts raised on the button and called a three-bet to 750,000 from AJ Jamil. On the flop, Jamil announced he was all in for what looked like around 4 million, and Shvarts shouted a call, slapping down for the flopped straight.
Jamil was all but cooked with , needing a miracle chop, but the turn assured that wouldn't be the case.
Three players were left in Parx Big Stax 1100 and with the slow, deep-stacked structure, it looked like it could be awhile before the tournament ended.
Grigoriy Shvarts had other ideas though, and his final two opponents walked right into traps, bluffing off all of their chips to him in huge pots when he had monster hands. The win, worth $82,549 for topping a field of 370, was Shvarts' fourth in the five-figure range and ended some recent final table frustration for him.
"It feels really good, finally," said an elated and a little relieved Shvarts. "It's been a lot of bad beats, stuff like that. Finally came my way."
Official Final Table Results
Place
Player
Hometown
Prize
1
Grigoriy Shvarts
New York, New York
$82,549
2
AJ Jamil
Glen Cove, New York
$57,793
3
Thomas Parkes
Alburtis, Pennsylvania
$37,154
4
Hal Rotholz
New York, New York
$24,402
5
Rafael Yaraliyev
Brooklyn, New York
$18,792
6
Peter Ippolito
East Meadow, New York
$15,547
7
Rafal Kordys
New Hyde Park, New York
$13,028
8
David Whitnah
Jersey City, New Jersey
$10,651
Shvarts' dominance wasn't looking so certain back on Day 1. Although he had a pile of chips, Shvarts got caught up in a hand and realized in the middle of it he was not OK, asking the tournament director if he could get an EMT on the horn.
Shvarts managed to finish off the hand — he turned a boat and rivered quads so winning the pot was never going to be an issue — and bust his opponent, and he stepped away from the tournament for a bit to try to shake it off.
The 29-year-old admitted the illness stemmed from a drinking bender that had bled right into the tournament, and when he returned to bag up his chips, he knew he had to get some rest and get right for Day 2.
"I woke up feeling better and it just went my way from there," he said.
Indeed, Shvarts really got rolling on Day 2. That's when he ran up a sizable chip lead heading into the final table, entering the final day of play with about 30% of the total chips. He rarely was challenged as he spent nearly the entire time leading, with only Thomas Parkes resting the top spot from him briefly.
Three-handed with Parkes and AJ Jamil, Shvarts closed things out in a hurry. First, Parkes turned flopped top pair into a bluff in a three-bet pot when he three-barreled off on an ace-high board with king-queen, good for queens and sevens on the river when the board paired. Unfortunately for him, Shvarts was lying in wait with sevens full of aces after flopping second pair.
Then, he battled Jamil a bit heads up before the two discussed a possible chop with Shvarts holding a 2-to-1 lead. Jamil wanted to leave some dough to play for, but Shvarts was still tired from the long tournament grind and wasn't having it.
They decided to play, and a few hands later, Shvarts called a three-bet and flopped a straight with seven-three, Joe Hachem-style. Jamil overbet shoved into him with just ace-high, and Shvarts stood up and shouted in triumph.
"GAME. OVER." he yelled.
Afterward, he admitted the cards fell his way but he was also happy with how he played.
"I didn't really see nobody outplaying me," he said. "I felt really confident."
The 29-year-old Russian-born Shvarts, who said he's been living stateside since he was 10, secured his second-biggest cash after a fifth-place run in WPT Maryland Live! back in 2017 that netted him over $92K. He said he's walked away from every tournament a better player since that run, and he knows what lesson he took from this one.
"This tournament actually told me that I have to stop doing that," he said of his partying. "In order to play tournaments, you have to be in good shape. You cannot not sleep, go out, drink and expect to be on the same game as everybody else."