Kristen Bicknell Becomes a Poker Masters Champ
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Kristen Bicknell banked the largest score of her career to date by becoming the 2019 Poker Masters Event #6: $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em champion. Bicknell, the partypoker-sponsored pro, walked away with $408,000 and pushed her lifetime live winnings to almost $4.6 million.
2019 Poker Masters Event #6: $25,000 No Limit Hold’em Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kristen Bicknell | Canada | $408,000 |
| 2 | Chance Kornuth | United States | $267,500 |
| 3 | Ali Imsirovic | Bosnia & Herzegonvia | $178,500 |
| 4 | Andras Nemeth | Hungary | $127,500 |
| 5 | Ralph Wong | United States | $102,000 |
| 6 | Ben Heath | United Kingdom | $76,500 |
| 7 | David Stamm | United States | $63,750 |
| 8 | Elio Fox | United States | $51,000 |
A field of 51 entries took to the felt at the PokerGO studio in Las Vegas and what a field it was. $25,000 is a huge sum for a tournament buy-in and it attracted some of the best poker tournament players in the business. Manig Loeser, Byron Kaverman, Jeremy Ausmus, Sean Winter, Erik Seidel, Nick Schulman, and Stephen Chidwick were just a handful of players who bought in but failed to cash.
American superstar David Peters busted in ninth place. He bubbled the event after missing an open-ended straight draw and losing to the aces of Andras Nemeth.
Elio Fox was the first player to collect some prize money, three-betting all-in over a Chance Kornuth opening raise with ace-five. Kornuth called with ace-jack and won the hand courtesy of a jack on the flop.
David Stamm joined Fox on the rail after an almost identical hand. Kornuth raised with ace-jack then called when Stamm three-bet all in with ace-five. Neither player improved, Kornuth’s jack-kicker played, and the final six was set.
The United Kingdom’s Ben Heath fell in sixth-place after a set-up of a hand. Heath ran kings into Nemeth’s aces and couldn’t improve. Next to fall was Ralph Wong whose jam with ace-nine was called by Kornuth holding ace-jack, again. This gave Kornuth 3.8 million chips with his three remaining opponents holding 2.4 million combined.
Kornuth improved his standing when his pocket fives held against Nemeth’s ace-three to leave only three players in the hunt for the title. Those three became two when Ali Imsirovic fell by the wayside in third.
Bicknell and Kornuth battled it out heads-up for the title and Kornuth was all in twice for his tournament life only to survive. The final hand saw Bicknell all in with pocket eights against Kornuth’s nines. Bicknell improved to a straight on the river to lock up the $408,000 top prize, the biggest of her career.
Amazingly, Bicknell only entered this event on a whim. Speaking to Poker Central after her victory, Bicknell said, “It feels incredible to win this event. I final tabled the World Poker Tour event last week and I did not feel happy with my final table play, so that run was kind of bittersweet. I wasn’t planning on playing this tournament but I felt the itch and in Las Vegas and I’m very happy with how it played out!”
2019 Poker Masters Championship Standings
| Place | Player | Points | Winnings | Cashes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chance Kornuth | 630 | $556,400 | 3 |
| 2 | Kristen Bicknell | 300 | $408,000 | 1 |
| 3 | Isaac Baron | 300 | $223,100 | 1 |
| 4 | Ryan Laplante | 300 | $186,000 | 1 |
| 5 | Julien Martini | 300 | $164,400 | 1 |
| 6 | Jared Bleznick | 300 | $153,000 | 1 |
| 7 | Jonathan Depa | 300 | $133,200 | 1 |
| 8 | Sam Soverel | 270 | $151,800 | 3 |
| 9 | Jorryt van Hoof | 270 | $109,800 | 2 |
| 10 | Alex Foxen | 270 | $108,200 | 2 |
Kornuth’s third cash of the 2019 Poker Master, all of which have been second places, have put him in a dominant position for the purple jacket. Kornuth has 670 points now with six players tied on 300 each.
The $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event is down to its final five players and Sean Winter leads. Also at the final table are George Wolff, Sam Soverel, Anthony Zinno, and Kahle Burns.
Another $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em kicks off today and is followed by a $50,000 buy-in event on Tuesday. Wednesday sees the $100,000 buy-in Main Event start, giving players plenty of chances to catch Kornuth at the top of the leaderboard.
