The field has dwindled from 807 entries down to just nine players as the official final table is set to resume on the final day of action. The WinStar World Casino has played host to the River Poker Series over the past few weeks in Thackerville, Oklahoma and it all comes to an end today when the champion is crowned in the $2,500 Main Event.
There is still plenty of money up for grabs today as each elimination comes with a healthy pay jump. The final nine players are all guaranteed to walk away with at least $36,640 but each will have their sights set on the $384,100 first-place prize.
Final Table Payouts
Place
Prize (USD)
1st
$384,100
2nd
$235,040
3rd
$173,480
4th
$129,800
5th
$98,340
6th
$75,440
7th
$58,580
8th
$46,060
9th
$36,640
Day 1a chipleader, Johnny Deas, will come into the day as the top dog. He will be sporting a chip stack of 4,725,000 after a couple of big knockouts late in Day 2. Ricky Green is not too far behind with 3,880,000 and young gun Will Pengelly rounds out the top three with 2,555,000.
Final Table Seat Draw
Seat
Player
Stack
1
Ekrem Bozkurt
2,435,000
2
Ricky Green
3,880,000
3
Jeff Banghart
2,545,000
4
Brian Green
590,000
5
Matthew Bray
1,945,000
6
Will Pengelly
2,555,000
7
Johnny Deas
4,725,000
8
Alan Cummins
845,000
9
Dean Baranowski
1,100,000
The action is slated to get underway at 12:00 noon and play until a winner is crowned. The blinds will resume on level 27 at 30,000/60,000 and a 10,000 ante. They will continue to be 60-minutes in length with a 15-minute break after every two levels.
Follow along with the PokerNews live reporting team as we bring you all of the live updates throughout the final table.
Jeff Banghart opened to 125,000 from early position and Will Pengelly three-bet to 350,000 in the cutoff. Johnny Deas called on the button and Banghart came along as well.
The flop fell and Banghart checked to Pengelly who continued for 350,000. Pengelly couldn't even get the words out of his mouth before Deas announced all in for around 1,400,000. Banghart folded and Pengelly snap-called.
Pengelly turned over for a set of jacks and Deas was drawing extremely thing with . The on the turn left Deas drawing dead to the on the river. Just like that, the early chipleader on the day was ousted after a couple of hands.
Jeff Banghart opened for 180,000 in the cutoff and called immediately when Alan Cummins shoved in the big blind for about 1 million.
Jeff Banghart:
Alan Cummins:
"There's worse spots to be in," Banghart said with a shrug.
The was favorable for him, but the turn was two pair that he didn't really want as Cummins grabbed an extra out. The river was the , not enough for Cummins, and he headed to the rail for a seventh-place payout.
Jeff Banghart raised to 250,000 in the small blind and Matthew Bray announced all in from the big. Banghart snap-called and table , which left Bray in disbelief as he turned over .
The board ran out and Banghart had Bray slightly covered, about 2 million to 1.9 million.
The players have now paused the clock to discuss a possible deal.
Ricky Green raised to 250,000 and Will Pengelly flat-called on the button. Dean Baranowski re-raised all in for his last 1,350,000 and Green quickly folded. Pengelly called and said, "Let's gamble!"
Will Pengelly:
Dean Baranowski:
The flop came and Pengelly flopped a pair of sevens to take the lead. The on the turn and the on the river were no help to Baranowski as he hit the rail with his $144,000.
After Jeff Banghart tripled up in back-to-back hands moving his stack up to 1,000,000 chips, he was all in again on the button. Will Pengelly called from the small blind and the cards were on their backs.
Will Pengelly:
Jeff Banghart:
The board ran out and Pengelly's ten-high proved to be good enough to eliminate Banghart.
Will Pengelly raised to 300,000 on the button, Ekrem Bozkurt made it 1 million and Pengelly shoved all in. Bozkurt quickly called and showed . Pengelly said he had "Johnsons" and showed .
The board ran , so Pengelly sent Bozkurt packing and Bozkurt shook everyone's hand and headed to collect his money.
Will Pengelly called 500,000 from Ricky Green and they both checked the flop to a board of . Pengelly checked and called 500,000. On the river, Pengelly shoved all in and Green quickly called. Pengelly showed for the flush and Green tabled , meaning Pengelly adds the bracelet to his top monetary prize.
"So, this is why you play tournaments," said a friend of Will Pengelly's as Pengelly smiled and stacked towers of chips in preparation for a winner's photo at WinStar River Poker Series $2,500 Main Event.
"This is why you play tournaments," Pengelly confirmed.
Just 20 years old, Pengelly skipped class for the day at University of North Texas to come play out the final table at WinStar. As the top dog in a five-way chop, he's now taking home a sum most people his age couldn't dream of pocketing: $249,310.
Place
Player
Country
Prize
1st
Will Pengelly
United States
$249,310
2nd
Ekrem Bozkurt
United States
$215,170
3rd
Jeff Banghart
United States
$206,570
4th
Ricky Green
United States
$205,710
5th
Dean Baranowski
United States
$144,000
6th
Matthew Bray
United States
$75,440
7th
Alan Cummins
United States
$58,580
8th
Johnny Deas
United States
$46,060
9th
Brian Green
United States
$36,640
Cash games are Pengelly's bread and butter, as he's been grinding at WinStar since he turned 18. He decided to take a shot in the WinStar Main despite never having cashed in a tournament after a nice run in the local cash games.
"I think of tournaments kind of like the lottery," he said. "Many people enter and one player wins a lot of money. Today, that happened to be me."
It certainly didn't look like the lotto was going to land on Pengelly's lucky number early. After the elimination of short stack Brian Green almost right away, Pengelly twice picked up queen-ten suited and flopped open-enders with flush draws. Both times, he bricked out, the second one especially costly as he got stacks in against Dean Baranowski's top two.
Reduced to one of the shortest stacks, Pengelly waited for his spot and then got in a big flip with ace-king suited, once again flopping a combo draw. This time, he got there by pairing up on the river against start-of-day leader Johnny Deas, and he was back in business.
Deas had a miserable Day 2 as it was almost all downhill after the first half hour or so. Perhaps feeling the squeeze of his sinking stack, he picked a bad time to shove with fives after a jack-high flop, as Pengelly had flopped top set for basically a zero-sweat knockout in a huge pot.
All of a sudden, Pengelly had gone from a shoving stack to near the chip lead in a matter of minutes.
Nebraska native Jeff Banghart then notched consecutive eliminations. First, his ace-queen held against Alan Cummins' king-jack reshove. Then, he raise-called ace-nine for about 23 big blinds against Matthew Bray, who jammed ace-four blind versus blind and wasn't exactly pleased with Banghart's call.
There had been some discussion of a chop before, and it recurred with five left. The five looked at the ICM numbers and quickly found them agreeable. Pengelly had the chip lead and took $249,310, followed by Ekrem Bozkurt with $215,170, Banghart with $206,570, Ricky Green with $205,710 and Baranowski with $144,000.
They played out a turbo for the bracelet and Pengelly had that wrapped within an hour, winning his first big tournament shot.
Throughout the latter stages of the event, Banghart offered fatherly advice to Pengelly, telling him not to quit school no matter what the result of the event. As a finance major, Pengelly will likely be more shrewd with his newfound cash than many his age.
"I really want to buy a nice car but it will most likely be going into the bank," he said.
And then? It's off to Vegas for his first WSOP as he'll be of legal age by the time the summer rolls around and the semester is over.
"Yeah, I will certainly be going there to check things out," he said.