Michael Tureniec Wins WPTDeepStacks Immokalee
Well-traveled Swedish poker player Michael Tureniec added a WPTDeepStacks trophy to his list of accomplishments when he won WPTDeepStacks Immokalee on Thursday. He banked $143,324, the ninth score of at least six figures in a career that's seen more than $4.1 million in cashes, a WSOP bracelet and an EPT title.
"It feels amazing,” Tureniec told tournament reporters. “It was a very big tournament with a lot of runners and a very tough final table, so it feels really good to get the win.”
Official Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Tureniec | $143,324* |
| 2 | Scott Stewart | $98,368 |
| 3 | Ryan Hughes | $63,507 |
| 4 | Dennis Rodriguez | $46,996 |
| 5 | Ravi Raghavan | $35,799 |
| 6 | Zachary Donovan | $28,434 |
| 7 | Donald Maloney | $23,529 |
| 8 | Chris Cornell | $18,719 |
| 9 | Brett Bader | $14,028 |
*includes $3,000 WPTDeepStacks Championship package
WPTDeepStacks Immokalee is a preliminary event to the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown, which will run over the weekend with a $3 million guarantee. The DeepStacks event shattered the $250,000 guarantee by drawing 816 runners for a prize pool just short of $800,000.
Some of those who cashed in the event included Jake Bazeley, Nipun Java, Aaron Massey, Christian Harder, Olivier Busquet and Joseph Cheong.
Final Table Action
Tureniec held the lead with just shy of 80 big blinds when it combined to 10 players, but plenty of accomplished opponents remained like Scott Stewart, Zachary Donovan, Ravi Raghavan and Ryan Hughes.
Two of those players would push for their own moves into the lead. First, Stewart would win a race with Q♠10♠ against sevens held by Brett Bader to bust him in ninth. Then, Hughes picked up queens and busted Chris Cornell, who had sixes. Hughes furthered his lead as he moved to 7.2 million at 40,000/80,000/10,000 and a series of short-stack doubles followed.
Finally, Stewart busted Donald Maloney when the latter jammed his last six big blinds in with deuces and Stewart two-paired with ace-ten.
Donovan lost a big pot to Stewart wherein he said he folded a one-card straight on a paired board and dipped under 20 big blinds. He ended up getting his last few big blinds in with A♣4♠ and was called in three spots. He and two others missed the board but Dennis Rodriguez paired his three with 9♣3♦ to knock Donovan out.
Raghavan was next out after another big flip with deuces against ace-ten. Again, the shipper held deuces, and again, the ace-ten made aces and tens to prevail. This time, it was Tureniec who called in the big blind when Raghavan jammed for about 13 big blinds on the button. That pot gave the Swede over 6 million at 75,000/150,000/25,000.
Stewart kept pace but he had to get lucky to do so. Rodriguez shoved with eights for 1.2 million and Stewart called with a dominated A♦6♠. An 8♠5♠4♦ flop gave Rodriguez elation with top set but the 7♦ river cooked him in fourth.
Everyone had about even stacks three-handed and they played past 3 a.m. before opting to bag up for a final day. That day looked likely to be short with everyone below 35 big blinds and indeed it was.
Tureniec was fortunate enough to find kings when Hughes opened ace-jack on the button and then four-bet shoved. The kings held to give Tureniec about two-thirds of the chips and reduce Hughes under 10 bigs. He lost those in short order to Stewart, who went into heads-up play with the Swede down about 2-1 in chips.
The Circuit grinder would find no success as the two got in a flip with Stewart's nines facing off against ace-jack. An ace-high board was all she wrote and Tureniec had wrapped things up in under an hour for his first WPTDeepStacks title.
