The MSPT headed west to the Parkwest Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles, California to host its inaugural $1,100 Main Event 268 as part of their Big Poker Oktober Series!
A total of four starting flights pulled together a 601-entry field which was enough to clip the $500k guarantee and generated a $579,965 prize pool.
On Sunday, only 74 players returned for Day 2 action, and after roughly 11 hours of play, it was Vancouver Native Carl Oman coming out on top to win the $107,850 top prize and his second MSPT title!
“It feels great”, Oman said after his victory, “I won one of these a few months ago so when I saw there was another tournament here, I decided to make the trip down with my wife, and I’m glad I did.
Oman is referring to his Las Vegas Venetian win just a few short months ago during the NFL kickoff and has now accumulated over $200,000 in MSPT earnings to go along with two Main Event titles!
The final day came back with 74 players already in the money, so action kicked right into gear with short stack Marc Weinstein losing a race to Alex Avila to become the first elimination of the day.
The first elimination sparked a fire in the field as all players started to make their way to the payout desk with Sohale Khalili, Triet Nguyen, MSPT champ Justin Lynch, and LA Poker Round Up’s Ty Dobbertin all falling in the first batch of eliminations.
MSPT Hall of Famer Josh Reichard came into the final day with a bottom stack looking to pad his POY & ICON standings and was able to do so after he maneuvered his way to a 38th place finish for $2,475 while Marc Fiorentino (34th Place - $2,965), Dennis Stevermer (24th Place - $4,325), Anthony Marquez (22nd Place - $4,325), Jared Griener (20th Place - $5,150), and Andrew Ostapchenko (13th Place - $7,040) just missed out on the final table.
Final Table Action
Once players took their seats at the final table it didn't take long for action to kick into gear as Mir Gaskari found himself in a race against WSOP bracelet winner Cord Garcia only to come up short to take a ninth place exit.
Soon to be two-time MSPT champ Oman sat down at the final table second in chips and added to his stack after he dismantled Stephen Sakai ’s big slick, and David Phillips followed him to the payout desk in quick succession after being out-kicked by Garcia.
Garcia and Oman’s shared eliminations put them atop the chip counts which then collided in a three-way all in action pot which included Rick Mechammil.
Oman rolled over a set of threes which filled up on the turn to eliminate Mechammil in sixth place and he collected a massive double which catapulted him to the top of the counts while Garcia fell to the bottom.
The fall didn’t deter Garcia though, as he was able to secure two quick through Oman to jump right back into the mix, and then followed with the elimination of Rocco Iati after he rivered a Royal Flush with king-jack of spades.
The back-and-forth eliminations for Oman and Garcia would continue after Dave Gutfreund got his short stack in the middle from the big blind after pairing his six after a flop only to be called by Oman from the small blind holding a top pair of nines. Gutfreund was unable to pull ahead on the turn and river, ending his run in fourth place for $39,280.
Three-handed action started with Oman sitting atop the counts while Garcia in a close second, leaving John Padilla needing to make some moves and did, as he found an ace-ten to roll with only to have Oman roll over a dominating ace-queen.
Padilla was able to find a glimmer of hope after flopping a ten only to have Oman’s lucky lady hit the turn to send him home in third place for $53,010
After notching another elimination, Oman held a slight chip lead over Garcia, but he was able to make quick work in the heads-up battle which saw the former bracelet winner take a runner-up finish for $72,470 while Oman secured his second MSPT title to go along with a cool $107,850 payday.
This wraps up our coverage for this event, but the MSPT will be heading back to the Ameristar in East Chicago November 19th - 24th and our reporting team will be on hand providing updates for the $300K GTD $1,110 Main Event so make sure to come back!