Michael Pearson Wins the WSOP Circuit Harveys Tahoe $1,700 Main Event
Michael Pearson is now a two-time winner of the World Series of Poker Circuit Harveys Tahoe Main Event. Pearson took down the 2019 edition of the $1,700 buy-in tournament Monday, coming out on top of a field with 424 total entries and taking home the first-place prize of $133,285.
Pearson also takes home his second career WSOP Circuit ring, with the first coming in the 2016 Harveys Tahoe Main Event. The San Francisco resident outlasted a final table full of accomplished tournament players, and bested Jeremy Kottler in the heads-up battle to take down the championship.
Pearson, who was down to his last four big blinds at one point with 13 players left, came all the back and scored the second-biggest cash of his career at the Harveys Casino poker room in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
“You’re going to win and lose some pots in a tournament,” Pearson said. “But when you’re all in, you’ve got to win those. So I just tried to do that. Every time I was all in, I won the hand.”
Pearson was the short stack going into four-handed play, but rode a wave of big pots in the most important part of the tournament. Pearson doubled up through eventual fourth-place finisher Joe Brindle ($44,058), getting the best of a pocket nines versus ace-jack all-in showdown. Brindle exited on the next hand.
Minutes later, Pearson knocked out third-place finisher Charlie Coultas, and went into the heads-up battle against Kottler with the chip lead. Pearson never looked back after that, coming away with the win on a final day that took just four hours to conclude.
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Pearson | United States | $133,285 |
| 2 | Jeremy Kottler | United States | $82,379 |
| 3 | Charlie Coultas | United States | $59,824 |
| 4 | Joe Brindle | United Kingdom | $44,058 |
| 5 | Mitch Garshofsky | United States | $32,911 |
| 6 | Josh Burkhalter | United States | $24,942 |
| 7 | Nick Pupillo | United States | $19,182 |
| 8 | Lee Markholt | United States | $14,972 |
| 9 | Wes Nally | United States | $11,864 |
| 10 | Joe Burke | United States | $9,547 |
Final Table Action
Day 3 started with a 10-handed final table, with Nick Pupillo seated on Pearson’s left. Other notable players at the table included Kottler (2nd, $82,379), Coultas (3rd, $59,824), Mitch Garshofsky (5th, $32,911) and Lee Markholt (8th, $14,972).
“It was tough. I did not like my seat draw at all,” Pearson said. “Nick has already busted me twice this year. So I didn’t like the positioning. But I just tried to be patient .”
Coultas came into the final day with a big chip lead, with 3,480,000 in chips, more than two million more than the next closest competitor, which was Wes Nally with 1,400,000.
The eliminations came fast and often on Day 3, as Joe Burke went out in 10th place just minutes into the day. Nally hit the rail next, and the tournament was eight-handed before the first level of the day, Level 26 (20000/40000/40000) was done.
Markholt, Pupillo and Josh Burkhalter all headed to the exit before the end of Level 27, and the Main Event was down to five players when the remaining field went on the first break of the day.
Brindle came back from the break as the chip leader, and went over the five million chip mark at one point. A couple of big pots devastated Brindle’s stack in Level 28, however, with both Kottler and Pearson doubling through Brindle.
Brindle’s exit in fourth place left Pearson, Kottler and Coultas as the final three, with Coultas on the short stack. Coultas lost the last of his 20 big blind stack to Pearson minutes into Level 29, with Coultas king-five suited getting the wrong end of an all-in preflop showdown against Pearson’s ace-jack.
Coultas elimination left Pearson with 7,500,000 chips against Kottler’s 5,000,000 in the heads-up battle, which was over before the end of the level as Pearson kept chipping away at Kottler’s stack.
The final hand saw Pearson’s ace-king get the best of Kottler’s ace-queen, which sealed the second career Harveys Tahoe Main Event win for Pearson.