David "Edeskie" Cowling and Xing "Mai_K_4_Life" He Bring WSOP Gold to Ontario
Two World Series of Poker gold bracelets are on their way to Canada's most populous province, and their lucky new owners are David "Edeskie" Cowling and Xing "Mai_K_4_Life" He.
Cowling took down Event #3: $1,050 GGMasters Online Championship [Freezeout], earning $50,992 and his first career bracelet. On the same night, He became a WSOP bracelet winner after emerging victorious in Event #2: $210 PLO Bounty MILLION$.
Event #3: $1,050 GGMasters Online Championship [Freezeout]
The GGMasters Online Championship promised to be the biggest event since the WSOP.ca Ontario platform launched in September, and it didn't disappoint. A total of 207 players entered the tournament to chase their share of the $250,000 guaranteed prize pool.
Cowling was in third place at the start of the nine-handed final table, behind Jorge "Quaa" Artiga-Pacheco and Joshua "Frazer" Frazer James. Trung "Raazor" Nguyen was the first elimination after losing with ace-jack when Artiga-Pacheco rivered the nut flush with ace-eight.
Jaehwa "XE!PHIL@PTLV" Son soon joined Nguyen on the virtual rail after having their ace-queen dominated by Frazer James' ace-king. Cowling was in danger of falling in seven place when he was all in for 229,885 with ace-nine and up against Artiga-Pacheco with queens. Cowling remained behind until the river, which gave him a straight and a double up.
Shortly afterward, it was Cowling who picked up queens but ran into the aces of Brendan "fish-stick" Leonard. Cowling flopped a set to take the lead and finished with quads to bust Leonard in seventh place.
Jeffrey "Funky Kong" Reardon woke up with kings to eliminate Richard "Haker99" Hake in sixth before a flurry of eliminations saw Ken "n3kt" Tam and Artiga-Pacheco head to the rail in short order, Artiga-Pacheco running queen-ten into Reardon's ace-king. The one-time chip leader didn't improve and finished in fourth place.
Reardon also took out Frazer James in third with ace-queen against ace-ten as he took a 1,499,389 to 570,611 lead over Cowling into heads-up play. Cowling mounted a comeback and took his own 2-1 chip lead before Reardon began shoving all in, picking up a number of pots without a showdown to even up the match.
On what proved to be the last hand of the tournament, Reardon moved all in on the river for 624,799 and Cowling tank-called with eight-deuce for two pair. Reardon could only show king-nine for a missed straight draw as Cowling secured the bracelet. The Toronto native had four previous WSOP cashes, including a run in the Main Event back in 2015.
Final Table results
Rank | Player | Earnings |
---|---|---|
1 | David "Edeskie" Cowling | $50,992 |
2 | Jeffrey "Funky Kong" Reardon | $38,239 |
3 | Joshua "Frazer" Frazer James | $28,675 |
4 | Jorge "Quaa" Artiga-Pacheco | $21,503 |
5 | Ken "n3kt" Tam | $16,125 |
6 | Richard "Haker99" Hake | $12,092 |
7 | Brendan "fish-stick" Leonard | $9,06 |
8 | Jaehwa "XE!PHIL@PTLV" Son | $6,800 |
9 | Trung "Raazor" Nguyen | $5,099 |
Event #2: $210 PLO Bounty, $100K GTD [Final Stage]
Sunday also marked the final day of the $210 PLO Bounty bracelet event. A total of 66 players out of 651 entries survived to begin the day before being whittled down to a final table of seven.
He, whose previous best result was a 105th place finish in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event at the 2022 WSOP, began the final table in third place behind Andrew "asininedeuce" Lawton. But it was Mike Leah, with more than $2,400,000 in earnings across 82 WSOP cashes, including a bracelet from the 2014 WSOP Asia-Pacific, who took the chip lead after winning a big pot off Lawton with two pair at the start of the final table.
Allen "IronMyJacket" Shen, the massive chip leader for much of the day, busted in seventh place after running into the aces of Curtis Muller. Lawton had retaken the lead from Leah before Leah doubled up in a 5,200,000 chip pot, cracking aces on the turn with a Broadway straight. Leah then made a queen-high straight to beat the kings of Andrew St Jean, sending St Jean to the rail in sixth place.
Lawton and Leah tangled in another massive cooler, with both players finishing with a full house. Leah's eights over jacks beat Lawton's eights over fours and left the one-time chip leader with just over 1,000,000. Lawton was all in a few hands later with top pair and had Leah dominated, but Leah spiked two pair on the turn and Lawton had his run end in fifth place.
Leah again made two pair in an all-in pot against He, but He rivered the nut flush to double up. Muller then took his turn in the chip lead by busting Kacie "R U MAD" Thomson in fourth, making eights full of fives.
Two pots during three-handed play spelled the end for Leah and left He virtually holding the gold bracelet. After limping the button, He called when Leah raised to 1,000,000. Leah continued for 2,340,000 on the jack-high flop and He moved all in for 2,442,584. Leah called with aces, while He had both flush and straight draws. The turn completed He's flush and left Leah with crumbs. A few hands later, He again made the nut flush to double through Muller and eliminate Leah in third place.
Taking a massive chip lead into heads-up, the battle lasted only a few hands before Muller moved all in for 4,073,064. He called with queens and hit top set to win the pot, the bracelet, and $23,050 first prize to go with $14,810.96 in bounties.
Final Table results
Rank | Player | Earnings | Bounties |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Xing "Mai_K_4_Life" He | $23,050 | $14,811 |
2 | Curtis Muller | $12,785 | $4,559 |
3 | Mike Leah | $10,567 | $4,814 |
4 | Kacie "R U MAD" Thomson | $4,295 | $275 |
5 | Andrew "asininedeuce" Lawton | $7,628 | $4,819 |
6 | Andrew St Jean | $2,754 | $791 |
7 | Allen "IronMyJacket" Shen | $5,653 | $4,281 |
Cowling and He are the 79th and 80th WSOP bracelet winners from Canada. They joined Tristan "Schneids" Schneider, who won Event #1 last week. And with the success of the inaugural bracelet offerings on the new platform, there will surely be plenty more to come.
That concludes PokerNews' coverage of the first-ever all-Ontario WSOP bracelet events.