Although the 2018 Poker Masters has already crowned its new champion, there is still a whopping $2.5 million up for grabs in Event #7: $100,000 No-Limit Hold'em Main Event. Only four players will return to the PokerGO studio for the final day of competition and it will be David Peters leading the way with 2,203,000 chips.
When the money bubble burst late on Day 2 with Christoph Vogelsang heading to the rail, the final four players bagged up their chips to come back for some more poker action today. Peters will once again begin the day with the chip lead but he won't be as far ahead as he might have hoped for. Dan Smith made a late charge on Day 2 to finish with 2,030,000 as the two players hold over 80% of the chips in play.
The two shorter stacks that squeaked into the money are Koray Aldemir with 541,000 and Bryn Kenney with 227,000, barely over the starting stack he was given at the beginning of Day 2. While Kenney is on the short stack, he still has nearly 20 big blinds to work with so don't count him out just yet.
Final Table
Seat
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Dan Smith
United States
2,030,000
203
2
David Peters
United States
2,203,000
220
3
Bryn Kenney
United States
227,000
23
4
Koray Aldemir
Germany
541,000
54
All four players are guaranteed to walk away with at least $250,000 which would be considered a good payday in anyone's books. However, the pay jumps are substantial and the winner will wind up taking home $1,150,000.
The blinds will resume on level 13 at 5,000/10,000 with a 10,000 big blind ante but are set to move up fairly quickly. The levels will continue to be 60-minutes in length until a winner is crowned. The action is slated to get underway at 12:00 noon while the PokerGO live stream will begin around one hour after that. The PokerNews live reporting team will be reporting from the stream to avoid any spoilers and will be with you the entire way.
Hand #72: Bryn Kenney shoved the button for 185,000 and Koray Aldemir re-jammed for 422,000 from the small blind.
Kenney:
Aldemir:
Kenney was at-risk and in dominated shape, and when the dealer spread the flop it was looking slim for him
The turn fell the and Kenney was down to his final chance at catching a ten to stay alive. The river landed the , and Kenney was eliminated in 4th place and collected a $250,000 payday.
Hand #126: David Peters made it 65,000 with and Dan Smith defended big blind with by three-betting to 250,000. Peters let it go.
Hand #127: Smith completed and Peters checked with .
Smith had all of the board and he bet 60,000 on the river after it checked down. Peters dropped in a call and lost the showdown.
Hand #128: Smith raised to 60,000 with on the button and tank-called the shove — using a time extension — of Koray Aldemir, who had and 780,000 in the big blind.
The board nailed Aldemir as he now just needed to dodge backdoors. The did make it a sweat to the river but the was harmless.
Hand #156: Koray Aldemir completed the blind with and called a raised to 70,000 from Dan Smith, who had .
They checked to the turn on and Aldemir bet 150,000. Smith put in calling chips and they saw a river. Aldemir bet 175,000 and Smith responded with an all-in shove. It was 555,000 more to Aldemir and he slid in a time extension. With about five seconds left, he called to double through.
Hand #163: David Peters received a walk in the big blind.
Hand #164: From the button, Dan Smith opened his to 80,000 and David Peters shoved all in for 1,500,000 from the small blind.
From the big blind, Koray Aldemir called, and Smith quickly folded.
Peters:
Aldemir:
Peters was at-risk and trailing, but had two overcards in a classic flip. The dealer spread a flop to give Peters backdoor outs to a flush and straight.
The turn of the was one of those runner-runner outs to now give Peters a gutshot, and when the dealer revealed the on the river, Peters doubled through.
Hand #197: Dan Smith limped the button holding and David Peters shoved his big blind holding and Smith folded.
Hand #198: From the button, David Peters shoved all in for 3,780,000, and Dan Smith quickly called for his 1,140,000 total from the big blind.
Peters:
Smith:
Smith was at-risk, but in dominating shape, and when the flop fell, Smith furthered his advantage in the hand.
Unfortunately for Smith, the dealer burned and turned the on the turn to shift the advantage to Peters, and when the completed the board on the river, Smith was eliminated in 2nd place for a $700,000 payday.
For Peters, he would collect the $1,150,000 first prize, and his second 2018 Poker Masters title for the series.
After a marathon three-handed war that lasted about five hours, David Peters has completed what he started by leading after the first two days of 2018 Poker Masters $100,000 Main Event, winning the event for $1,150,000.
Peters triumphed over Bryn Kenney, Koray Aldemir and then Dan Smith heads up to add to his $4.6 million in tournament cashes in 2018. He bookended the Poker Masters series with wins, first in the $10,000 opening event and then in the Main Event to finish things.
However, despite Peters' fantastic start and finish, he fell short of winning player of the series honors and claiming the Poker Masters Purple Jacket. That distinction went to Ali Imsirovic, who locked it up on Day 2 of the Main Event with the elimination of Brandon Adams out of the money at the final table.
Place
Player
Home Country
Prize
1
David Peters
USA
$1,150,000
2
Dan Smith
USA
$700,000
3
Koray Aldemir
Germany
$400,000
4
Bryn Kenney
USA
$250,000
The final day of the event began with Peters holding a very slight lead over Smith, while Kenney and Aldemir trailed by some distance as just four of 25 remained. Kenney held on to his short stack for a few hours despite failing to find a double but he'd ultimately fall when he jammed a dominated queen-ten into the queen-jack of Aldemir.
"I think I did a really good job of transitioning," Kenney would say afterward when asked by Maria Ho of Poker Central about adjusting to being short-stacked. "I played really well. That's all I care about anyway."
It seemed a foregone conclusion that Smith and Peters would clash heads up, but it proved to be anything but a certainty. Aldemir found a double winning a flip against Smith and then the three settled into a long grind.
A couple of hours later, Aldemir doubled again through Smith in sick fashion. Holding the nut flush blocker, Smith shoved all in on the river over an Aldemir value-bet after the German made top pair of jacks with a bad kicker. Aldemir found the call button and was suddenly worst to first, while Smith had the shortest stack.
"I just thought he doesn't have it," Aldemir told Ho with a chuckle when she asked him about the big call.
Just after that, Aldemir was one card from a dominating lead. At 20,000/40,000/40,000, Smith opened on the button for a min-raise and Peters ripped in 1.5 million with ace-ten. Aldemir woke up with nines and the race was on, with the nines looking great on a dead flop. Peters picked up outs with a gutshot to Broadway on the turn and he made the straight on the river to surge into first with over 3 million out 5 million in play.
Aldemir nearly secured a valuable ladder worth $300,000 when Smith check-raised all in with second pair and a backdoor straight draw and Peters called with top pair. The runner straight came in, however, and Smith moved back to 2 million.
The German dwindled from there until he lost the last eight big blinds to Smith.
"I have to admit I'm a little bit disappointed," Aldemir said. "I thought I made a couple of mistakes today. I wasn't super happy with my play."
After 175 hands, the match that everyone expected at the start of the final table was a reality. The two players quickly agreed to speed up the structure.
They were nearly even to begin with but Peters got the advantage early when he made top pair in a three-bet pot. He rolled from there against his fellow American, helped by another big hand when he flopped the nut flush with ace-nine. Smith would lose the last of his chips on a bad beat as Peters turned a three-outer with king-seven against ace-seven.
After the match was over, Ho asked Smith about getting to the end of one of the toughest fields in recent memory, 25 players very heavy on the best pros in the world.
"The games are really tough," Smith allowed. "It's quite a challenge."
As for Peters, known as one of the most consistent and active grinders, he admitted it was grueling going from the win to a drought firing off $25K and $50K shells to another win over the course of more than a week.
"It was definitely a long week," he said. "A lot of battles with a lot of great players."