Kareem Marshall Takes Down the Almighty Stack for $124,480
After almost six hours of play on Sunday, Event #13: $400 Almighty Stack ended after a six-way deal. Kareem Marshall took the lion-share of the prize pool with $124,487.54. It marked Marshall’s second-biggest live tournament cash ever after winning $180,000 in Las Vegas during the WPT500 in 2014 after finishing in second place behind Sean Yu. The win propelled Marshall to over the $500,000-mark according to Hendon Mob.
Almighty Stack Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kareem Marshall | United States | $124,480* |
| 2 | Ray Medlin Sr | United States | $120,000* |
| 3 | Luis Trujillo | United States | $111,420* |
| 4 | Luis Rodriguez (US) | United States | $90,283* |
| 5 | Daniel Tu | United States | $71,768* |
| 6 | John Long | United States | $62,546* |
| 7 | Chad Tardif | United States | $33,071 |
| 8 | Dennis Gainer | United States | $22,237 |
| 9 | Ryan Tamanini | United States | $15,965 |
*denotes six-way deal
From Five Tables to One
At the start of the day, 37 players out of 3,359 entries returned to the felt to battle it out and things went fast and furious immediately. During the first level, nine players failed to win their final all-ins while the second level featured a multitude of double-ups. By the time the first break came, 17 players had already been eliminated.
After the break, the curtain fell for Daniel Slocum and Eric Rivera for the tournament to get down to the final two tables. Zachary Underwood made an incredible comeback, he started the day with four big blinds and ended up finishing in 18th place when he ran his sixes into the jack-ten of Ryan Tamanini. Elizabeth Hymel lost the blinds battle when she shoved with ace-five and was looked up by Luis Rodriguez who held ace-ten. By the time the turn was dealt, the pot would be split but the queen on the river gave Rodriguez a flush to send her to the rail.
Carlos Rodriguez pushed his last chips in with king-deuce and was called by Travis Horning who held pocket tens. Horning flopped a set, Rodriguez turned a gutshot to a straight but missed on the river as Horning improved to a full house. David Meagher was next to go when he got his last seven big blinds in with king-six. Matthew Pomponio’s ace-queen held to eliminate Meagher in 15th place.
But Pomponio couldn’t hold on to his chips as his three-bet got four-bet shoved on by Luis Trujillo who had ace-king. Pomponio tank-called with sevens but the king on the river meant the end of his tournament life. Robert Calabrese was sent home next by Ray Medlin Sr. Calabrese held sevens too and couldn’t beat the hacks of Medlin Sr.
Joseph Shinn got his six blinds in when he held ace-six and was called by John Long with ace-nine. No help on the board as he was gone in 12th place. Horning was eliminated by Marshall with pocket tens. Marshall’s ace-nine found another ace on the flop to score a knockout to his name. Orson Young bubbled the final table when his last ten big blinds went in with ace-six too. Medlin Sr held the cowboys and he stayed ahead throughout the board to send Young to the payout desk to collect $10,263.
Final Table Action
Tamanini won Event #10: $300 Deepest Stack for $64,032 earlier this week but couldn’t add another trophy to his collection as he was the first player to leave the final table when he ran his king-queen into the rockets of Trujillo. Dennis Gainer then busted when he ran his ace-deuce into the queens of Marshall. And when Chad Tardif finally got his short stack in with jack-seven, he couldn’t beat the nine-eight of Medlin Sr.
With six players left, they decided to discuss a deal. After a lengthy discussion and with Long giving up some money for Medlin Sr, the numbers were agreed upon. Another exchange then happened as it needed to be decided where the trophy would go to. After a while, the top four stacks decided to flip for it. Marshall had the biggest stack going into the deal discussion and would also end up winning the flip as he flopped a pair of eights with his eight-six on the eight-deuce-king-four-trey board.
This concludes the coverage for the Almighty Stack but stick around as there’s still plenty of action going on and coming up in all the other events on this busy Saturday.