Congratulations to Sam Trickett, Winner of the LK Jewelry $250,000 Challenge (AU$2,000,000)
He did it again! Sam Trickett started the day out as one of the short stacks, but he managed to turn things around in a huge way. After winning the $100,000 event back in 2011 he added this event to his impressive resume. The Brit was unstoppable from the moment he doubled through Tobias Reinkemeier, the same player he had to face heads up. Trickett took home AU$2,000,000 for his victory, which puts him in second place on the all-time money leader board.
The final table started out with seven players, three of which would not make the money. With a AU$500,000 money bubble looming, play started off slowly but eventually it was Richard Yong who busted in seventh place. Yong ran his ace-queen into Igor Kurganov's ace-king, who took a big chip lead from that point on.
Erik Seidel was the next player to go. The former winner of this event started out as the short stack and failed to mount a comeback. Seidel lost his final chips with ace-five versus Fabian Quoss' ace-queen. From this point on it was bubble time and that lasted for about three hours!
Many players were all in, some doubled and some pots were chopped. Finally it was Winfred Yu who ended up busting in fifth place leaving him empty handed. Yu was all in with ace-four of spades and didn't improve versus Kurganov's ace-seven.
Kurganov was in command for a big part of this final table, but a huge cooler ended his day in fourth place. Kurganov turned a flush and got all the money in for the biggest pot of the tournament. The German seemed confident, but that was washed away quickly when Trickett turned over his cards for a straight flush. Kurganov added AU$500,000 to his bankroll after already finishing second in the $100,000 event earlier this week for AU$610,000.
When three-handed play began, it was certain that Quoss was going to be all in many times before being a serious threat to the other two players. With just 325,000 chips against Reinkemeier's 985,000 and Trickett's 3,215,000, it was just a matter of time before Quoss was going to be all in. Quoss ended up all in with seven-six suited and was up against Trickett's ace-ten suited. No help for Quoss who took home AU$750,000, which is his biggest result to date.
The heads-up match was between Reinkemeier and Trickett, both of which had been in this spot before. Trickett finished second to Antonio Esfandiari in the Big One for One Drop during the 2012 World Series of Poker, while Reinkemeier lost heads up against Justin Bonomo in the �100,000 High Roller in Monte Carlo just a few months earlier. Both had their eye on the prize and the title, but it was Trickett who took it all home.
On the final hand it was Reinkemeier who moved in with king-deuce and lost to Trickett's ace-five. Here are the final standings of the event.
| Place | Name | Prize (AU$) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sam Trickett | $2,000,000 |
| 2 | Tobias Reinkemeier | $1,250,000 |
| 3 | Fabian Quoss | $750,000 |
| 4 | Igor Kurganov | $500,000 |
Have a look at Trickett's post-victory interview with Lynn Gilmartin:
Thank you for following the PokerNews updates throughout this tournament and don't miss out on any of the other events! The Main Event is almost down to a final table and you can find those updates here. Tomorrow the $25,000 Challenge will kick off at 2:15 p.m., which will also be covered from start to finish right here!