Eliot Hudon of Montreal defeated British pro Benny Glaser in a brief heads-up match to win the WPT World Championship for $4.1 million.
As the stacks of hundred dollar bills were poured onto the table with two players remaining in the WPT World Championship, Eliot Hudon took one glance at the money and had to look away.
The professional poker player from Montreal wanted to avoid being distracted by the millions in cash sitting inches to his right.
“I didn’t want to think about it,” Hudon said. “Every time I had a thought that wasn’t positive, I would push it away and just keep being in the zone.”
After bossing the final table for the majority of play Tuesday at Wynn Las Vegas, Hudon kept his nerve and defeated highly-regarded British pro Benny Glaser in a brief heads-up match to secure the biggest cash of his short poker career.
Hudon earned $4.136 million, the largest prize awarded in the World Poker Tour’s 20-year history, to go with the Mike Sexton Champions Cup trophy.
The $10,400 buy-in No-limit Hold’em tournament featured a $15 million guaranteed prize pool, one of the largest in live poker history, and attracted 2,960 entrants.
“Part of me feels like I almost don’t deserve it because I’ve been playing for not that long,” Hudon said. “I’m not planning to do anything crazy with the money. I’m pretty minimalist in general. I like my life the way it is right now. All this does is allows me to play some more and bigger poker.”
Hudon, 25, grew up playing chess and video games before gravitating to poker 3½ years ago. Most of his success has come online, and his biggest career live cash was in the 2021 World Series of Poker Main Event (63rd for $113,800).
Entering the final table, Hudon was second in chips to Glaser, a four-time WSOP tournament bracelet winner. But on the fourth hand, the tables turned as Glaser went all-in with ace-jack and Hudon held pocket kings to double up and take more than 50 percent of the chips in play.
“Winning that hand effectively won me the tournament, I would say,” Hudon said.
Hudon was responsible for three of the first four eliminations and held more than a 3-to-1 chip advantage over Glaser entering heads-up play, which lasted seven hands and a little more than 20 minutes.
On the final hand, Hudon called a check-raise from Glaser on the turn and then made a nine-high straight when the river card was revealed. Glaser continued with his bluff, sending all his chips in the middle, and Hudon quickly called.
Glaser, 33, earned $2.83 million for second place, the largest payout of his career. His previous top 14 cashes all came in events other than No-limit Hold’em.
“When he shoved I thought we would be chopping (the pot in half),” Hudon said. “But when I called and I saw his face, I knew it was over.”
Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.
The controversial hand between Robbi Jade Lew and Garrett Adelstein took place Sept. 29 at Hustler Casino in Gardena, California, during a high-stakes cash game.
The 54th annual World Series of Poker opens May 30 at Paris Las Vegas and Horseshoe Las Vegas.
High-stakes poker pro Jason Koon defeated Phil Hellmuth in their heads-up No-limit Hold ’em match Wednesday to earn the $1.6 million prize.
The World Poker Tour’s World Championship Festival runs through Dec. 20 at Wynn Las Vegas and features the largest live tournament guarantee in poker history.
Phil Hellmuth will meet professional poker player Jason Koon on Dec. 7 for a $1.6 million winner-take-all prize in Round 5 of “High Stakes Duel III.”
Daniel Negreanu won the Super High Roller Bowl VII on Friday at the PokerGO studio at Aria, securing the second-largest prize of his Hall of Fame career.
The high-stakes, cash-game showdown between Robbi Jade Lew and Garrett Adelstein that took place during a “Hustler Casino Live” stream remains a trending topic online.
Ali Imsirovic and Jake Schindler were suspended from all PokerGO events through the 2022 season, the poker content company said.
Norwegian Espen Jorstad released a statement Monday denying that he agreed to swap a percentage of his winnings from the WSOP Main Event with another player.
The WSOP Online will feature official gold bracelet tournaments on WSOP.com in the U.S. from Sept. 10 to Oct. 18 and on GGPoker for international territories starting Aug. 14.
Copyright © 2019 Las Vegas Review-Journal, Inc. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service
Powered by WordPress.com VIP