Venetian Casino regular Ben Palmer has won the inaugural World Poker Tour Venetian DeepStack Showdown $3,500 buy-in NLH main event, beating a strong a field of 734 entries to secure his first WPT title and become the newest member of the WPT Champions Club. He took home the top prize of $431,655. This was by far his largest cash and it took his live earnings to a hefty $2,732,635.
The huge field saw the $1,000,000 guarantee easily surpass and the prize pool reach $2,333,800. Top 92 were paid and some notables to make money were Jay Farber (8th for $52,790), Aaron Massey (10th for $41,665), David Williams (14th for $26,890) and Indian-origin players Ravi Raghavan (24th for $15,270), Dilip Das (28th for $12,965) and Ankush Mandavia (32nd for $12,965).
India’s Nipun Java was also in the field and he managed to run deep in the tournament. However, his run came to an end in the 27th place for an impressive $12,965 (INR 8,94,941). Most recently, he had final-tabled WSOP Circuit $ 1,125 No Limit Hold’em (Event #7) for $5,890 and now his 27th place finish in this tournament adds $12,965 more to his already impressive $2,496,686 in live earnings.
It took full three days for the field to narrow down to the final 9 players. The final day began with 9 runners making up the unofficial final table. It was Palmer who led the pack with 5.46 million in chips. Everyone left in contention at the start of Day 4 play was battling for his first WPT title.
Palmer extended his lead by busting WSOP Circuit Bicycle Casino main event winner Sean Yu who ran his Ad Jc into 10s 10d of Palmer. Yu failed to improve and was eliminated in ninth place.
Jay Farber was the next to exit the tournament. In his final hand, he got all-in with Ah 9h and was called by Ad Ks of Mark loli. The two could not improve and Faber had to settle for eighth place.
Palmer scored his second elimination when his Ah Kc beat 9s 9h of Skip Wilson. Palmer paired his ace on the turn to win the pot and eliminate Wilson in seventh place for $67,675. Following him was William Givens finishing 6th for $87,760. He was busted by Mark loli who hit trips aces with A-8.
The next elimination was yet again scored by Palmer who eliminated Mark loli in 5th place for $115,105. Palmer surged to over 13 million in chips and later Tony Gargano tried to close the gab by eliminating Orlando Barrera in fourth place ($152,690). He flopped quads with his pocket kings against Barrera’s pocket sixes. The next to fall was Danny Qutami in third place ($204,810). He was busted by Gargano who took the lead into heads-up with 16.8 million to Palmer’s 12.5 million.
The final two players battled it out for a long time, exchanging the lead along the way. On the final hand, Gargano moved all-in for 9.5 million. Palmer tank-called with his Qd 10d against Gargano’s Ah 4c. The board opened Jc 10h 9c 6c Qh to give Palmer two pairs to win the pot as well as the title.
Final 9 Payouts (USD):
| 1 | Benjamin Palmer | $431,655 |
| 2 | Anthony Gargano | $277,760 |
| 3 | Danny Qutami | $204,810 |
| 4 | ORLANDO BARRERA | $152,690 |
| 5 | Mark Ioli | $115,105 |
| 6 | William Givens | $87,760 |
| 7 | Skip Wilson | $67,675 |
| 8 | Jay Farber | $52,790 |
| 9 | Sean Yu | $41,665 |
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