Final two players strike a deal in Potomac Winter Poker Open Main

Day 3 of the $3,000 Main Event at the Potomac Winter Poker Open returned eight players from the 401 entrants in the event on Monday afternoon. The final table played out over seven hours before Seunghyun Nam and Nolan Hanessian got heads-up virtually even in chips. 

The final two players split the prize pool almost evenly, with Nam edging out Hanessian for the trophy.

Nam earned $190,512 and Hanessian signed for $187,878. The ICM calculations resulted in only a $2,634 difference between them. After the deal Nam said, “My flight leaves in two hours, I’m not sure if I’m going to make it.”

Two big winners

“The tournament was great, I had a lot of fun,” Nam said. “I tried to play well, I ran really well and I’m super happy with the result. I had a big stack during the end of the tournament, and I was trying to take spots and be aggressive.”

“Everyone at the table played well, but luck was on my side today,” he added.

“I don’t have many live tournaments, I play mostly cash,” Hanessian said. “But it still feels good. It’s my biggest score ever.” He plays mostly No-Limit Hold’em and Pot-Limit Omaha in the region but claims to be much worse at Big O.

Eight players returned on Monday for the Potomac Winter Poker Open final table.

Danny Maxwell Photography - DMP

Ugly beat sets up final three

The first elimination came in the first orbit before players even settled in. Brady Bash shoved holding , Danny Fish called with , the boar ran queen-high and the better ace won.

Adron Countryman was short-stacked from the start of the day and his final hand came in a cooler. He had pocket aces, bet the whole way and Hanessian had him beat with a turned set of nines.

Five minutes later, Hanesessian open-shoved, Jeremy Rodriguez called off holding and Hanessian had . Rodriguez turned a Broadway draw but missed and Hanessian’s ace-high was good enough to send Rodriguez to the payout cage.

Danny Fisher suffered an ugly beat in four-handed play.

Next to go was Peruvian-Japanese Alfonso Yamakawa when he shipped his stack all in from the small blind with a weak ace and Nam called in the big blind with . The board ran nine-high, Yamakawa ran out of outs and was done in fifth place.

Danny Fisher took the ugliest beat of the final table – and maybe of the tournament. He three-bet shoved preflop with two black aces and Hannessian called with two red sevens. The flop came eight high, a rag on the turn but Hannessian spiked the on the river. Fisher’s aces were cracked and he still shook the remaining players’ hands and left the area.

Passing chips around

Three-handed play stretched out over almost four levels with each player taking a turn with the chip lead. The short stack seemed to double up umpteen times before Chris Carusso lost with Broadway cards and was eliminated in third place. He moved in with , Hanessian called with and he never improved.

Chris Carusso tried to make it interesting before he bowed out in third place.

As Carusso was filling out his paperwork, Hanessian and Nam agreed to an ICM chop as their stacks were virtually even. Nam came out on top to earn the trophy and nearly $200,000. Their stacks were so close, that there was only a $2,634 difference between the two spots.

PWPO Main Event final table results

^{*denotes heads-up deal}

^{Photos courtesy of Danny Maxwell}