Carl Carodenuto Goes Back-to-Back at MSPT Canterbury To Win $90,805
In December, Carl Carodenuto more than doubled his lifetime tournament earnings by winning Mid-States Poker Tour Canterbury Park for $116,103. He repeated the trick Sunday night to become the first back-to-back winner at the same venue in the tour's history, topping a field of 376 to bank $90,805 and become the seventh two-time winner in MSPT history.
Carodenuto bested a final table that included World Series of Poker bracelet winner Adam Friedman and former MSPT Canterbury champ "DQ" Dan Hendrickson.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carl Carodenuto | Bloomington, MN | $90,805 |
| 2 | Gennady Shimelfarb | Minneapolis, MN | $54,483 |
| 3 | Jeff Taylor | Eden Prairie, MN | $35,341 |
| 4 | Adam Friedman | Gahanna, OH | $24,699 |
| 5 | JK Song | Minneapolis, MN | $18,524 |
| 6 | Pete Bigelow | Moose Lake, MN | $14,529 |
| 7 | Tim Signore | Oak Lawn, IL | $12,349 |
| 8 | Justin Thurlow | Cottage Grove, MN | $10,170 |
| 9 | Scott Johnson | White Bear Lake, MN | $8,717 |
| 10 | Dan Hendrickson | Faribault, MN | $6,902 |
The $1,100 event paid out to 36 places, and among the players making the money were Tony Hartmann (31st), Josh Reichard (30th), John Hayes (23rd), Scott Sitron (21st), Travis Lauson (18th), and WSOP bracelet winner John Reading (17th).
According to the live updates, Carodenuto held a narrow chip lead over Friedman when the final table began, but it was short stack Gennady Shimelfarb who was the star early. After winning two early races, he shot up from nine big blinds to a playable stack.
One of those came against Hendrickson, who was denied his second MSPT title and found himself out in 10th after running the A♣K♦ into the aces of JK Song. It was aces over ace-king again for the next elimination, with Carodenuto doing the honors to send out Scott Johnson.
Justin Thurlow then tried squeezing all in for 13 big blinds over a raise from Carodenuto and a call, but Carodenuto had the goods with the A♣Q♣ and Thurlow was forced to show down the Q♥5♦, which did not improve on the 4♠10♠K♣9♦3♦ board.
Carodenuto's hot run continued when he got the A♦10♠ in against the A♥J♣ of Tim Signore and ran a diamond flush despite Signore turning a pair of jacks. After Pete Bigelow and Song went bust in sixth and fifth, respectively, Carodenuto had about half of the chips in play.
Friedman tried cramming his last 685,000 in at 25,000/50,000/5,000 with the J♠7♠ but Shimelfarb woke up with the A♥K♣ and neither player found a pair, leaving ace-high best.
Carodenuto picked up the J♥J♣ three-handed and got Jeff Taylor at risk with the A♣10♦. The board read 7♣8♥5♥A♥ on fourth and Taylor looked poised to double, but Carodenuto found the 4♥ to make a flush on the river and take a 5-1 lead into heads-up play.
Shimelfarb had done well to maneuver his short stack that far, but he would go no further as his K♥Q♦ could not overcome the A♠J♠ of Carodenuto when the two got it in preflop and Carodenuto turned the nut flush on a Q♠9♥4♠K♠3♥ runout.
"Absolutely, I've got to try to defend again," he told tournament reporters when asked if he'd be going for the three-peat when the tour comes back to Canterbury in December.
*Image courtesy of the MSPT.
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