Walt Lustgraaf Wins HPT Ameristar Kansas City ($111,370)
Walt Lustgraaf outlasted a field of 341 players to win Heartland Poker Tour Ameristar Kansas City, taking down $111,370 in the process. Lustgraaf came back from being one of the shorter stacks at the final table to get his largest tournament cash to date by far — he previously only had about $20,000 in winnings total.
Official Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Walt Lustgraaf | $111,370 |
| 2 | Nicholas Summervill | $70,502 |
| 3 | Keith Murrell | $47,211 |
| 4 | Chris Scott | $32,927 |
| 5 | Jon Hanner | $24,695 |
| 6 | Nam Phan | $19,369 |
| 7 | Garrett Riley | $16,367 |
| 8 | Ryan Gregor | $13,558 |
| 9 | Andrew Ernstein | $11,670 |
The tournament paid out 36 places. Some of the notables who made their way to the money but fell short of the final table included Shawn Roberts, Chan Pelton, Michael Sanders, Nick Jivkov, James Mackey and Jason Brin.
According to the live updates, Chris Scott headed to the televised and streamed final table with a big chip lead and over 130 big blinds. Lustgraaf was amid a jumble of players hanging around 30 big blinds.
Lustgraaf didn't play too many big pots early, seeing Andrew Ernstein, Ryan Gregor and Garrett Riley bow out early on. The first player to mount a challenge to Scott's stack was Nicholas Summervill. He eliminated Nam Phan in sixth, courtesy of an ace-king triumphing over a pair of tens in the hole to draw near to Scott at the top of the counts.
With blinds at 25,000/50,000/5,000, Lustgraaf found a good spot after Scott opened and "Minnesota" Jon Hanner jammed for 1.2 million. Lustgraaf woke up with kings and put Hanner, who held ace-king, at risk. The board ran out dry for Hanner and Lustgraaf surged past 50 big blinds.
Former leader Scott got in a massive flip after that, four-betting all in preflop with 9♠9♥ and getting a call from Kansas City native Keith Murrell, who had A♠Q♦. The board ran out 4♥7♦10♥J♥, quite favorable for Scott as he had Murrell down to just a few outs on the river with hearts making Scott a flush. The Q♠ arrived though and Scott was left on fumes and busted in short order.
Murrell, though, busted next when he got A♥J♥ in against the A♣K♥ of Summervill and couldn't pair his kicker or otherwise improve.
Heads-up play between Lustgraaf and Summervill began with the players almost even at over 80 big blinds apiece. The decisive moment came when Lustgraaf opened to 200,000 at 40,000/80,000/10,000 and got a call from Summervill, who checked a 2♥9♦4♦ flop. Lustgraaf bet 175,000 and Summervill made it 375,000. Lustgraaf called and an A♥ hit. Summervill bet 500,000 and Lustgraaf called. Summervill fired a final barrel of 1,125,000 on the 6♥ river and Lustgraaf called with ace-four, good for the huge pot and almost a 4-1 lead.
Summervill found a double with queens against ace-king, but it was Lustgraaf picking up queens to end things after an hour of heads-up play. Summervill couldn't get away from ace-jack and had to settle for $70,502 and second place when he did not improve.
Image courtesy of HPT
