The 32-year-old Canadian pro beat Chance Kornuth to take down the $408,000 prize.
The Poker Masters Championship is running at full speed in Las Vegas, with the world’s best tournament specialists at the tables.
The festival is designed for high-rollers offering tournaments with buy-ins between $10,000 and $100,000 exclusively. The big stakes and the prestige attracted the most accomplished players from all around the world, creating a 51-entry-strong field for the event with a prize pool of $1,275,000.
It was Kristen "krissyb24" Bicknell who came out on top after outlasting the star-studded final table of eight. “It feels incredible to win this event. I final tabled the World Poker Tour event last week and I did not feel happy with my final table play, so that run was kind of bittersweet. I wasn’t planning on playing this tournament but I felt the itch and in Las Vegas and I’m very happy with how it played out!” said Bicknell afterward.
| 2019 Poker Masters Event #6 No Limit Hold’em Results | |||
| 1 | Kristen Bicknell | 300 | $408,000 |
| 2 | Chance Kornuth | 210 | $267,500 |
| 3 | Ali Imsirovic | 150 | $178,500 |
| 4 | Andras Nemeth | 120 | $127,000 |
| 5 | Ralph Wong | 90 | $102,000 |
| 6 | Ben Heath | 60 | $76,500 |
| 7 | David Stamm | 60 | $63,750 |
| 8 | Elio Fox | 60 | $51,000 |
The first player to be eliminated from the final table was Elio Fox, who received $51,000 for his performance. Elio was followed by David Stamm, who added $63,750 to his bankroll.
The first casualty of the final day was UK’s Ben Heath, who found himself at the wrong end of a huge cooler when he ran his kings into the aces of Hungary’s András "probirs" Németh. The aces managed to hold, and Heath was out in 6th place, good for $76,500.
Ralph Wong busted in 5th place when he shoved with ace-nine and got called by the chip leader, Chance Kornuth. Wong left the table to pick up $102,000 at the cage.
Kornuth kept putting pressure on his opponents, and short stack András finally took a stand with ace-three. However, he wasn’t able to beat the pocket fives of Chance’s and was out in 4th place. The high-roller regular added $127,000 to his winnings.
The three-handed play was a rather intense one, as both Bicknell and Ali Imsirovic managed to score a double up to even the stacks. It was the latter, who finally had to settle for 3rd, and the $178,500 coming with it, leaving Chance and Kristen battle it out.
Bicknell had Kornuth all-in for his tournament life twice before eventually managing to bust him. Kornuth, who is currently leading the Purple Jacket Leaderboard added 210 Poker Masters Championship points and $267,500 to his name, while "Krissy" pocketed $408,000 and 300 points.
“I came into this tournament with a good attitude, I was focused and tried to play my best. Playing in this event, especially at the final table against guys like Andras and Ali, I felt like I’m below the top level because I don’t study GTO like they do. I was definitely the underdog but thankfully I didn’t get put into too many difficult spots and things went my way.”
