April 24-27
Adam Nattress' best WSOP summer series finish, a fourth-place run in the $1,500 Omaha Hi/Lo event in 2024.
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1ST
Adam Nattress
$139,614
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2ND
Ryan Hart
$92,123
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3RD
James Czarnecki
$62,216
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4TH
Vanna Tea
$43,024
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5TH
Bradley Miller
$30,482
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6TH
Moshe Gavrieli
$22,140
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7TH
Rayo Kniep
$16,495
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8TH
Kyle Grosshanten
$12,616
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9TH
Vy Nguyen
$9,911
To enter Day 2 of a three-day Main Event with one of the two biggest stacks among 50 returning players could be a cruise to the final table, but that’s not Adam Nattress’ style. The friendly, unassuming crusher from Portland, Oregon, went a different route.
Acknowledging that steadily chipping up with less drama is more his jam, he thought the noisy route was in his future on Day 2, but the cards had different ideas on his way to an eventual Main Event title here in Lake Tahoe.
“That’s kind of my style. I like to win the small pots and just kind of navigate the field and play around the players that are around me. I thought I was going to have a more aggressive route to start Day 2 since I was one of the biggest stacks to start the day, and then I bluffed off half my stack early on and lost a race with ace-king versus queens, and I was like, ‘Well, I guess I don’t have a big stack anymore.’ You’ve just got to reset to what your current situation is. That’s what tournament poker is all about.”
Building to a crescendo
And he did just that, not just on Day 2, but then again on Monday’s final day of play as well, leading to a dramatic, noisy conclusion to his first WSOP Main Event title and a career-best $139,614.
Nattress rebuilt on Sunday to bring the fourth biggest stack of the final six into play, but after running into the early day buzzsaw that was the start-of-day short stack, Ryan Hart, Nattress found himself short again. It was his eventual heads-up opponent that was gathering all the chips, going from short stack to chip lead.
But Nattress leaned on his experience and positional advantage on Hart to rebuild via repeated big blind versus small blind raises and flop C-bets that got folds to get back into the game.
“The whole first half of the day, he was just on fire. He couldn’t lose a pot. I think he kind of just wanted to be in every pot, so I was fortunate to be on his left and just used my positional advantage to, like I said, win the small pots, and then I got lucky to crack both kings and aces at the end in the big pots.”
Kings and aces, you say?
Now, about that cracking of kings and aces. As mentioned, the quiet, steady accumulation of chips ultimately led to a dramatic conclusion with plenty of noise.
First, it was Nattress ending 2024 WSOPC Lake Tahoe runner-up James Czarnecki’s hopes of redemption with a horrific beat three-handed.
Finally holding the chip lead, Nattress called off a nearly 33bb four-bet preflop jam by Czarnecki with pocket nines, running into Czarnecki’s kings in a massive pot that almost didn’t happen.
“I seriously, strongly considered folding that preflop, but I thought I might be in a race, and if I win this race, I’m probably going to win the tournament. It ended up not being a race, but I won the biggest pot of the day and went on to win the tournament. As they say, you’ve got to win a couple of those along the way.”
A nine came for Nattress on the flop, and after a very quiet level of play, those fireworks suddenly brought play to heads-up, with Nattress holding a 2-1 chip lead.
Nattress’ match with Hart lasted barely 20 minutes before one final, massive hand that gave him the title. With four to Broadway on board on the turn, observers thought that with as many chips as were going into the pot, a chop was likely, but holding the straight, Nattress thought otherwise.
“I thought I had it won, yeah. That’s why I went for the raise on the turn with four Broadway cards. I thought he had two pair minimum and just didn’t feel that he was going to fold that to me. Once he was thinking about calling that raise right there, I knew he was committed to putting in the rest.”
Nattress asked for Hart’s final chips on the river, and the runner-up, who made an incredible run to his own career high score of $92,123 from a satellite win on Club GG, paid off with trip aces.
PDX represent!
While he’s well known in the Northern California and Reno / Tahoe poker scenes, the champion will now drive home to Portland to celebrate Mother’s Day with his wife, Alysia and daughter Nyla before heading to Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker. But not before sending thanks to those in his home turf who’ve been with him on his way to this career highlight.
“I want to give a shoutout to the whole Northwest poker community. They’re super supportive through the highs and lows; everybody’s always supportive when I do well. Shoutout to my dad, who’s always been my biggest poker fan; he’s always got my back, and Alisha at home, who’s got my back in life. I know you guys are really proud of me. This means a lot to me.”
