Joon Park Conquers the LSPS Champions Inaugural Texas State Main Event ($271,429)
The booming success that was the Inaugural Texas State Main Event has come to it's conclusion after an epic Day 3 of action which saw 17 players play down to the last remaining champion after a chop decision with three players remaining.
Joon Park was the player at the end of the night holding the silver belt buckle for the title and a grand prize of $271,429. The 29 year old South Korea native, attended the University of Texas and now calls the Lone Star State home residing in Austin. He is normally a PLO cash game player, but this victory certainly puts his name on the map as a serious NL Hold'em tournament player as he bested a field of 1,818.
Park began Day 3 12th out of 17 players in chips but started to chip up early. A pivotal moment for him came before the final table when he made a huge call for his tournament life that propelled him in chips and set him up for a run to the title.
Final Table Results
Place | Player | Prize Money | Hometown |
1 | Joon Park | $271,429 | Austin, TX |
2 | Gabriel Andrade | $195,955 | Houston, TX |
3 | Nick Shkolnik | $257,170 | Sun Valley, CA |
4 | Jared Hemingway | $104,375 | Greenville, TX |
5 | Michael Wang | $79,875 | Livingston, NJ |
6 | Harry Wright | $61,375 | De Queen, AR |
7 | Christopher Doan | $45,375 | Hacienda Heights, CA |
8 | Kevin Kaylor | $34,375 | Houston, TX |
9 | Shawn Rice | $26,000 | Lubbock, TX |
Action of the Day
The day began with 17 players, it was fairly swiftly cut down to the final table after only a couple of hours, where the final nine then took a break and headed over to the PokerGo feature table.
Action at the final table was wild as there were several chip swings up and down. Most notably from the enigmatic Jared Hemingway, who went from chip leader, to short stack back to chip leader and back to short stack over a span of emotions and table talk.
Shawn Rice was the final table's first victim when he ran into Hemingway's aces. Kevin Kaylor next hit the rail in eighth place.
End of Day 1 and end of Day 2 chip leader, Christopher Doan was eliminated in seventh place after getting bad beats on two hands that took the entertaining player from top of the charts in chips, to out the door in the span of a few short moments.
Harry Wright was eliminated in sixth place before the most lucrative tournament winning player at the table, Michael Wang, was sent away in fifth place.
Play would grind to a halt four-handed as chips were passed around for about two hours before the aforementioned Hemingway would eventually succumb in fourth place.
The three remaining players then discussed a deal. Nick Shkolnik was chip leader with 40 big blinds, Park second with 33 big blinds and Gabriel Andrade third in chips with 16 big blinds. The decision was made to give each player their ICM money based on chip stack and take out $30,000 to play for along with the title.
After some all in flips, Shkolnik was taken out in third to leave Park vs Andrade for the title which Park won in a mater of moments, using his big stack to finish off the victory.
That wraps it up for the PokerNews coverage of the Lone Star Poker Series after what has been a very fun and enjoyable three weeks of poker action in Houston
Lone Star Poker Series Winners
Date | Buy-in | Tournament | Entries | Prize Pool | Winner | Prize |
Sunday, April 18 | $215 | Event #1: Spring Series Kick-Off | 409 | $150,000 | Gerald Stogner | $23,742 |
Sunday, April 18 | $400 | Event #2: $15K Deepstack Almost Freeze Out | 38 | $15,000 | Nick Chin | $3,634 |
Monday, April 19 | $400 | Event #3: NLH Senior's Event | 27 | $10,000 | Scott Sanford | $3,500 |
Monday, April19 | $400 | Event #4: Manic Monday Double Stack Turbo | 29 | $10,000 | Giovanni Musachio | $3,300 |
Monday, April 19 | $400 | Event #5: Limit Horse Deeper Stack Turbo | 28 | $10,000 | Dean Joe | $3,049 |
Tuesday, April 20 | $500 | Event #6: Limit Omaha 8 Championshio | 24 | $10,200 | Pedro Rios | $4,080 |
Tuesday, April 20 | $400 | Event #7: NLH 6 Max | 26 | $10,000 | Kevin Kaylor | $4,000 |
Wednesday, April 21 | $400 | Event #8: The Monster NLH | 110 | $35,750 | Mark Cortez | $10,010 |
Wednesday, April 21 | $400 | Event #9: Big Bet 8 Game Mix | 27 | $8,000 | Bryan Evans | $3,510 |
Thursday, April 22 | $400 | Event #10: NLH Black Chip Bounty | 39 | $15,000 | Derek Norman | $3,885 |
Thursday, April 22 | $600 | Event #11: Spring Series PLO Championship | 96 | $48,960 | David O'Brien | $9,874 |
Friday, April 23 | $400 | Event #12: The Ultimate Monster NLH | 102 | $33,150 | Pedro Rios | $9,447 |
Friday, April 23 | $400 | Event #13: Pot Limit Big O | 32 | $10,400 | Nick Chin | $3,700 |
Saturday, April 24 | $400 | Event #14: Lone Star Surorise Bounty | 93 | $47,430 | Jason Fitzpatrick | $13,518 |
Saturday, April 24 | $500 | Event #15: Tag Team Partner Tournament | 29 | $12,180 | Collin Rountree | $4,872 |
Sunday, April 25 | $600 | Event #16: “Super” Deep Stack Almost Freeze Out | 49 | $24,000 | Deanna Johnson | $6,000 |
April 27-May 3 | $1,300 | Event #17: Texas State $1M GTD Main Event | 1,818 | $2,090,700 | Joon Park | $271,429 |
Sunday, May 2 | $600 | Event #18: NLH Spring Series Saver | 150 | $76,500 | Daniel Lowery | $15,792 |
Monday, May 3 | $400 | Event #19: NLH Second Chance Send Off | 86 | $27,000 | Michael Lech | $8,000 |