Jeff Fielder Wins HPT Ameristar Kansas City
Jeff Fielder has been one of the most successful players on the regional circuits in the U.S. in recent years, with a couple of WSOP Circuit rings and two WPTDeepStacks titles among his $1.6 million in tournament cashes.
Now, he's got a Heartland Poker Tour title to add to the trophy case after winning HPT Ameristar Kansas City $1,650 Main Event for $94,713 on Monday evening. Fielder got through a field of 290 entries for his latest big result, including a final table that proved very tough, with a number of accomplished U.S. circuit regulars and a couple of bracelet winners.
Official Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jeff Fielder | $94,713 |
| 2 | Jovan Sudar | $60,535 |
| 3 | Nick Jivkov | $40,562 |
| 4 | Eric Medved | $28,620 |
| 5 | Nick Pupillo | $21,414 |
| 6 | Vincent Moscati | $17,296 |
| 7 | Saied Moradi | $14,413 |
| 8 | Rohman Viar | $11,942 |
| 9 | James Mackey | $10,336 |
Former event champ Frank Patti and Shiva Dudani were a couple of the players making deep runs in the event but falling among the 31 paid places.
Dudani bubbled the streamed final table when he got it in with rags and couldn't overcome the ace-jack held by Fielder.
Final Table Action
Top U.S. grinder Nick Pupillo and bracelet winner Nick Jivkov held the biggest stacks with over 1.6 million apiece and blinds and antes at 8,000/16,000/16,000, while Fielder held a very healthy 1.2 million going into the final day, according to the live updates.
The shortest of the bunch was the other bracelet winner present, James Mackey. He lasted quite some time despite coming in around 10 big blinds but he shoved his short stack in with J♣10♦ in the small blind and ran into the pocket kings of Jovan Sudar to go bust.
Fielder then got his first knockout when he woke up with tens in the big blinds and called the shove of 13 big blinds by Rohman Viar, who failed to improve with pocket fours.
Seven-time ring winner Vinny Moscati then doubled through Saied Moradi with kings against A♦10♦. Moradi was unable to recover and busted in seventh after losing a flip to Sudar.
The good times didn't last for Moscati, though. Fielder opened under the gun with aces and Moscati picked up pocket eights in the small blind. He shoved his 21 big blinds in and the aces held up for Fielder, so he moved into the chip lead along with Sudar at 1.9 million at 15,000/30,000/30,000.
Pupillo, who has been a member of the GPI top 100 all year, saw his run end in fifth. He lost most of his stack when he reshoved pocket eights over a jam for about 20 big blinds from Eric Medved. Pupillo flopped an open-ender but did not improve from there.
Fielder and Medved played a big flip with the former holding tens and the latter ace-queen. Neither player hit anything on the community cards and a huge pot went to Fielder, eliminating Medved and giving Fielder command of 6.2 million out of about 9 million at 30,000/60,000/60,000.
The lead would slip a bit as Fielder saw both players more than double the amounts they started three-handed play with. Jivkov eventually found tens in the big blind and shoved over Fielder's button open, but Fielder flipped well once again as he found an ace on the flop to bust Jivkov.
Only Sudar remained in Fielder's way, and the Nebraskan thought he found a good spot when he hit jacks up on the river. However, Fielder had turned him dead with aces up and Sudar's river shove was met with a quick call to end the tournament.
