Roger Teska Wins WPT Gardens Poker Festival for $368,475
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The first stop of the World Poker Tour’s 18th season wrapped up this week with the conclusion of the $5,000 buy-in WPT Gardens Poker Festival Main Event, a tournament that attracted 373 entries – down from 584 last year – and created a $1,753,100 prize pool.
Coming out on top to etch his name on the WPT Champion’s Cup was 34-year-old Roger Teska, who also won a $368,475 top prize, a $15,000 seat into the season-ending Tournament of Champions, and a 2019 BMW X1 thrown in by The Gardens.
“It’s a lot more enjoyable when people can’t just sit there and take all the time in the world in every single decision."
“Was this the first event?” Teska asked WPT officials after his victory. “I’m definitely going to play a few more WPTs for sure. This was the first WPT I’ve played in a long time and they’ve done an incredible job fixing some flaws in the structure. Going to 90 minutes for the middle two days and then going back down to 60 minutes and adding the time banks and shot clock – that’s awesome."
He added: “It’s a lot more enjoyable when people can’t just sit there and take all the time in the world in every single decision. As somebody who doesn’t play tournaments a lot, that really bothers the shit out of me.”
The win brought Teska’s lifetime earnings up to $3,285,976 and was his first tournament cash since November of last year, which is when he won the partypoker MILLIONS Caribbean Poker Party $25K for a whopping $2 million.
WPT Gardens Poker Festival Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roger Teska | United States | $368,475 |
| 2 | Molnar Laszlo | Hungary | $235,615 |
| 3 | Lior Orel | United States | $172,770 |
| 4 | Lars Kamphues | Germany | $128,320 |
| 5 | Andrew Wisdom | United States | $96,545 |
| 6 | Cord Garcia | United States | $73,600 |
| 7 | Eric Hicks | United States | $56,860 |
| 8 | Maria Ho | United States | $44,525 |
| 9 | Vladimir Vasilyev | United States | $35,340 |
Others to cash the tournament were Nipun Java (11th - $28,445), Dan Fleyshman (16th - $19,225), Elio Fox (18th - $16,150), Max Pescatori (28th - $11,910), Kevin Song (43rd - $9,330), and Joel Feldman (48th - $4,665).
WPT Gardens Poker Festival Final Table Action
On Thursday, the final six players returned to action and it’d take a lengthy 229 hands before a winner was determined. On just Hand #17, Cord Garcia fell after getting it in on the turn holding top two pair only to see Lars Kamphues table top set.
Six hands later, Kamphues flopped fours full of fives while Andrew Wisdom turned a pair of aces holding ace-queen. The chips went in on the river and Wisdom bowed out in fifth place for $96,545.
It would take more than 100 hands for the next player to fall. It happened when Kamphues got it all in preflop holding two black jacks and was racing against Teska and his ace-queen. An ace on the river was gin for Teska and Kamphues hit the rail.
On Hand #187, Lior Orel ran jacks into Laszlo Molnar’s kings all in preflop, which resulted in Teska going into heads-up play at an approximately 5:1 chip disadvantage. Teska immediately doubled up in the first hand between the two and later would make quad sevens to rake in a monster.
Eventually Teska seized the chip lead and whittled down Molnar, who on Hand #229 of the final table shoved with king-queen suited. Teska called with ace-six offsuit and held on a dry run out. Molnar had to settle for second place and $235,615 in prize money.
Season 18 of the WPT continues at the end of August with the $5,000 buy-in WPT Legends of Poker at The Bicycle Hotel & Casino.
Images courtesy of the WPT.
