Another great tournament series just concluded at Bay 101 Casino in San Jose. The Fall Poker Classic featured six events, 987 entries, and over half a million dollars in prize money.
The Main Event was held Oct. 19 to 21, with two Day 1s followed by Day 2. The buy-in was $1,100. Players had the option of one re-entry per flight. This attracted 332 entries, making a sizable $332,000 prize pool.
Auguste Shastry had the lion’s share of chips when the remaining players agreed to a six-way chop, making him the champion and earning him the trophy and $43,190. He was followed by Victor Shih ($36,870), Guy Hadas ($33,270), Yanki Koppel ($31,700), Zachary Grech ($31,155) and Paul Richardson ($26,000).
Eliminated during play at the final table were Cy Williams ($11,020), David Fong ($9,045) and Paul McCafffrey ($7,090).
The week started off with five single-day tournaments. Event #1, held on Oct. 14, was no-limit Hold’em with a $350 buy-in and one re-entry allowed per participant. They had 161 entries for a $48,300 prize pool.
After a six-way deal, first place and $7,370 went to Hieu Le with Sanjeev Bais in second taking $6,580. They were accompanied by Veronica Brill ($5,800), Alejandrino Gamboa ($5,720), Rohan Kapuria ($4,630) and Dan Webster ($3,380). The rest of the final table consisted of Mark Simanovsky ($1,670), Soumitra Nagar ($1,480) and Joseph Mussat ($1,290).
Next was $355 Omaha Hi-Lo, with 64 players and a prize pool of $19,200. A five-player chop had Ruomeng Dong in first ($3,950) followed by Santiago Baraceros ($3,820), Vinh Pham ($3,010), Phong Huynh ($2,970) and Arthur Ragosta ($2,340).
Event #3 was the $560 no-limit Hold’em “Monster Stack” tournament, which had 184 players and a prize pool of $92,000. The chop went four ways this time, with first going to Tri Tran ($15,660).
Also in on the deal were Albert Shih ($13,740), David Valdez ($13,610) and Scott Sanders ($11,960). Rounding out the final table were Lance Gordon ($4,430), Akram Suleiman ($3,670), Samuel Diep ($3,130), Dean McMillan ($2,750) and Christopher Bridgford ($2,390).
The fourth event had the same structure as the first, this time with 134 entries and a $40,200 prize pool. The four-way chop had Ferit Bulutoglu out in front ($6,940), followed by Tuiofu Hunkin ($6,900), Richardo Gonzalez ($6,410) and Kulwant Singh ($4,650). Next up was Bin Duan ($1,990), Soumitra Nagar ($1,690), Bradley Miller ($1,460), Tho Khac Tran ($1,290) and Hoang Nguyen ($1,140).
The penultimate event was the 20/20 tournament with a $550 buy-in. In this no-limit Hold’em event, players received 20,000 chips and had 20-minute levels. The chop went just two ways this time. Simon Santiago came out on top at $14,630 and Tri Tran took second and $11,530. The rest of the final table seats were taken by Eben Kurtzman ($6,210), Salvador Seguritan ($4,060), Boris Chechelmitsky ($3,130), Clinton Petersen ($2,570), Lester Lenart ($2,180), Hock Lau ($1,900) and Johny Martinez ($1,680).
For more, go to www.bay101.com.
