Greg Raymer once again displayed his poker skills by taking down the Main Event of the Heartland Poker Tour (HPT) Ameristar East Chicago recently. He managed to win his fifth title in an HPT Main Event, winning a total of $171,411 as a prize for his effort.
On top of that, Raymer managed to win a Championship Package worth $3,500, which is also his entrance to the HPT Season XVI Championship.
Raymer was proclaimed the HPT Player of the Year back in 2012, and he has had a lot of success in this poker festival. The field consisted of 520 entries, and it wasn’t easy for him to get to first place, but he managed to do it nevertheless, winning his fifth title.
At the moment, Raymer is in third place on the all-time money list for HPT events, right behind Reginald “Shawn” Roberts and Craig Casino.
The peak of the event was an exciting heads-up match between Raymer and Evan Bethyo, who was leading in chips since the start of the last day of the event.
Even when the two players met in the heads-up part of the tournament, Raymer still had a 2:1 disadvantage to his opponent. Nevertheless, he managed to double up in the first hand of the last part of the tournament.
He managed to river queens-up, which faced jacks-up in Bethyo’s hand. That way, chip stacks evened out, and the two players proceeded to play as equals.
Raymer admitted to having a bit of luck in heads-up play. In fact, he stated that catching the queen on the river during the first hand against Bethyo was nothing but pure luck.
He then commented on poker, claiming that it is still a game of luck, especially in the heads-up part of the event. He concluded that luck had been on his side during the heads-up, but what he didn’t mention was the outstanding poker skills that actually brought him to heads-up.
The Final Table Results — Who Else Raymer Had to Face
The final table consisted of nine players. The first one to hit the rail was Benjamin Craig, who ended up with $14,906 in his pocket. He was followed by Dale Hackney and Matt Schurter, with Hackney winning $18,633 and Schurter ending with $22,732.
The player in sixth place was Bohdan Slyvinskyi, and he earned $27,949 for his effort. He was followed by Tim Barany for $36,147, and Marc Yofon for $48,295.
The only player who was not from Illinois, apart from Raymer, was David Gutfreund, who came from Las Vegas. He ended up third and won a total of $69,462. He was the last player to hit the rail before Bethyo and Raymer were able to face off in heads-up play.
In the end, Bethyo was the one who had to settle for second place and the consolation prize of $104,789.
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