Michael Copeland Wins WPT500 L.A. for $181,950
After 16 — yes, 16 — starting flights and two final days of play down, WPT500 Los Angeles ended on Monday with Michael Copeland emerging atop a field of 2,509 entries at The Bicycle to win $181,950. He put in a dominant performance over the final two days, holding a chip lead from late in Day 2 on to the finish.
The massive win dwarfs Copeland's previously recorded live cashes of just over $5,000.
Official Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Copeland | $181,950 |
| 2 | Jorge Pineda | $120,610 |
| 3 | Aaron Messmer | $87,565 |
| 4 | Jose Torres | $65,330 |
| 5 | Erik Nason | $49,270 |
| 6 | Luke Nguyen | $37,565 |
| 7 | Sanjay Mayekar | $28,960 |
| 8 | Travis Tachibana | $22,570 |
| 9 | Alexander Beleson | $17,790 |
While the massive field played out across the numerous starting flights and drew heaps of anonymous faces, some notables did still manage to make the 124-player Day 2. Martin Zamani, Phil Laak, Ping Liu, Peter Neff, Chris DeMaci, Thomas Zanot, Layne Flack and Adrian Moreno all advanced but fell short of the final table.
Copeland scored three eliminations late on Day 2 to position himself for the final day in the chip lead just shy of 100 big blinds, according to the live updates. Nobody was even in his ballpark as the next-biggest stack after his 19 million was the 7.2 million of Jorge Pineda.
Five players were under 20 big blinds so it looked like things would progress quickly on Day 3.
Final Table Action
As expected, the dominoes started to fall early with Pineda scoring two knockouts in the first 45 minutes. He busted Alexander Beleson with aces against ace-queen and then Travis Tachibana with queens against ace-four.
Copeland then handed out a couple of doubles to sink to about 50 big blinds. However, he righted the ship when Sanjay Mayekar shoved for about 15 big blinds and Copeland woke up with kings. Mayekar had ace-queen but a king-high flop spelled the end.
Copeland won a flip to bust Luke Nguyen when the latter's sixes couldn't hold against king-jack, giving Copeland a little under half of the chips in play five-handed.
Erik Nason was next to go, shoving about 15 big blinds with king-ten and running into the nines of Aaron Messmer. The sweat was short as Messmer found a third nine on the flop and then filled up on the turn, moving to 12 million at 150,000/300,000/300,000.
Messmer scored the next knockout as well when a short-stacked Jose Torres shove for nine big blinds with K♥6♣ on the button and Messmer picked up A♥J♥ in the small blind. A 10♦J♦Q♣ flop made for a sweat but two bricks fell to leave Torres with a worthless king-high.
Copeland had half of the chips three-handed but it was anyone's game as a single double through him by either opponent would anoint a new leader. Messmer, though, sank down to about 14 big blinds and shoved them on the button with 7♥4♥. Copeland looked down at A♦8♦ in the big blind and put him at risk, flopping an ace to send Messmer packing and go heads up with about a 3-1 lead over Pineda.
Just 10 minutes later, it was over as Pineda shoved for just over 20 big blinds with 10♣9♥. Copeland looked him up with A♣J♣ and although both players flopped pairs, aces bested tens and Pineda could find no further help to bow out second for $120,610.
That concludes the currently scheduled WPT500 season, although the main tour has two events and WPTDeepStacks has a packed schedule with five events next month.
