Justin Liberto Comes Out On Top in Event #11: $2,700 Main Event
Event #11: $2,700 Main Event at the Winter Potomac Poker Open attracted 533 entrants, generating a prize pool of $1,274,400. On Monday, February 6, just seven players returned for Day 3, all of them looking to capture the title of main event champion and the first-place prize of $277,053.
Once the dust settled after just four hours of play, local poker pro and WSOP bracelet winner Justin Liberto emerged victorious, besting start of day chip leader Caitlyn Cobb in heads-up play to add another tournament victory to his already impressive poker resume.
"I feel happy, I feel fortunate how it all happened," said Liberto when asked what the victory meant to him. It is indeed fortunate that he was playing in the tournament at all. "I actually was in the Bahamas until Day 1b and I landed here at 6:30 p.m. I got here at 9 p.m. and late registration closed at 9:45 p.m., so I got to play one level before late reg ended."
One can only imagine how different things would have been had his flight been even slightly delayed.
As for Liberto's plans for the future, he does intend to cut back on live poker. "I just had a kid that's about to turn one so I play a little less frequently than I did for the past decade." Still, he is not in full retirement mode just yet. "I'm going to keep being out there, keep trying to win, keep trying to make some more money."
Event #11:$2,700 Main Event Final Table Results
| Position | Name | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Justin Liberto | United States | $277,053 |
| 2 | Caitlyn Cobb | United States | $172,044 |
| 3 | Joseph Lebrun | United States | $123,617 |
| 4 | Mark Dickstein | United States | $90,482 |
| 5 | Christopher Brown | United States | $68,818 |
| 6 | Shouyi Gao | United States | $52,250 |
| 7 | Anthony Lam | United States | $39,506 |
| 8 | Hal Rotholz | United States | $31,860 |
| 9 | Tim Faro | United States | $22,302 |
Day 3 Action
Anthony Lam came into the day as the second shortest stack with just 17 big blinds and was sent to the exits early on when his king-jack fell to Liberto's ace-ten. Shouyi Gao was the short stack entering play and, though he was able to find a pay jump with Lam's elimination, hit the showers in 6th place after an unfortunate river card saw his king-queen felled by Cobb's queen-jack.
Cobb continued her red-hot run by next downing the ladies of Christopher Brown to bring his tournament to a close in 5th place. Mark Dickstein struggled to get much of anything going throughout the day and eventually bowed out in 4th in a blind on blind confrontation with Liberto.
All of those eliminations took place in a short space of time. It would take a little longer, however, for the final three to be cut down to two. With the ever increasing blinds, though, it was only a matter of time before someone was sent to the rail. That unfortunate individual was Joseph Lebrun when he called off for his tournament life with top pair against Liberto who held two pair.
That elimination set up a heads-up showdown between Cobb and Liberto. Although Liberto held the chip lead for much of the remainder of the tournament, winning a battle of attrition against Cobb, she did double on several occasions to remain in contention. After a couple of hours of play, her luck ran out when her top pair fell to Liberto's full house to bring the tournament to a close.
Although Cobb was unable to secure the victory, she was visibly thrilled with her deep run and the accompanying $172,044 second-place prize. What makes the result all the more impressive is the fact that this is one of her first live tournaments after she was introduced to poker by her husband, local player Justin Arnwine.
Congratulations to Justin Liberto on winning Event #11: $2,700 Main Event at the Potomac Winter Poker Open! That concludes coverage of this event but be sure to stay tuned as Pokernews continues to provide updates from some of the biggest poker tournaments around the world.