Mo Abedi-Arani Wins Card Player Poker Tour Choctaw Main Event

When the final card was dealt in the Card Player Poker Tour Choctaw $1,500 main event it was cash games specialist Mo Abedi-Arani who received the chips, the title and the money after overcoming a heads-up chip deficit that was at one point 6-1.

“It feels great but it still hasn’t hit me,” Abedi-Arani said of his title. “Blair was on my left the whole time and he busted early, so that was lucky. Then everything else just worked out the entire time. It felt good.”

The final hand began when Choctaw regular Allan Farber raised to 260,000 from the button and Abedi-Arani called from the big blind. The flop was dealt 6 5 2, Abedi-Arani checked, Farber fired out a bet of 300,000 and Abedi-Arani called. The turn was the 6 and Abedi-Arani checked again. Farber bet one million, Abedi-Arani raised to 2 million and Farber moved all in. Abedi-Arani had him covered and called. Farber showed A J for a flush draw, but Abedi-Arani was ahead with 7 6 for trip-sixes. The river was the 4 and Abedi-Arani was crowned the final winner of the 2012-2013 Card Player Poker Tour.

“It’s nice, the bracelet is nice, the money is nice,” he said. “Obviously I’m happy. It’s great because now I can play a little bit bigger. It helps a lot.”

Farber left with $136,011, adding on to his CPPT Choctaw results which included five cashes on the series, four final tables and one win.

Farber was not the only CPPT Choctaw title holder to make the final table. Matthew Ludlow won the $100 no limit hold’em earlier in the series and made his exit from the final table as the fifth-place finisher for $56,445.

By the time day 2 came to an end only nine players of the 96 who started the day remained, setting the official final table in motion for day 3, the championship bracelet and $220,626 in first-place prize money. Blair Hinkle was the obvious standout in the final nine with four career titles and more than $3.3 million in career live and online winnings. However a fifth title was not in the cards for Hinkle at Choctaw as he suffered from bad luck at the final table. Hinkle was eliminated in seventh place, adding $33,475 to his lifetime earnings.

Bruce Guin began the final table as the short stack with a mere 285,000, or five big blinds, but battled back and held on long enough to pick up a fourth-place finish for $74,734. Lou Barlow, who began the final table as the chip leader, made it all the way to a third-place finish for $100,271.

The highlight of the series, the $1,500 buy-in $500,000 guarantee main event, drew 735 entries and amassed a prize pool of $1,103,091, shattering the guarantee. Notables included 2012 WSOP October Niner Rob Salaburu, Oklahoma-native Alex Phahurat, Tommy Vedes, T.J. Cloutier and WSOP bracelet winners Chance Kornuth, Larry Wright, Grant Hinkle and Blair Hinkle. Allyn Jaffrey Shulman, coming off a win at the CPPT Venetian main event, made a second consecutive deep run toward a title, finishing 19th for $9,343.

Defending CPPT Choctaw champion Maxx Dansky and runner-up Miguel Hernandez also showed up for a second try at the title. Local heroes Doug Paxton – a two-time Oklahoma State Championship of Poker champion, Sebastian Tejada and Justin “Choctaw” Kruger were also in the field.

Here’s a look at the final table results.

1. Mo Abedi-Arani – $220,626
2. Allan Farber – $136,011
3. Lou Barlow – $100,271
4. Bruce Guin – $74,734
5. Matthew Ludlow – $56,445
6. Donald Thurman – $43,186
7. Blair Hinkle – $33,457
8. Bill Donnelly – $26,243
9. Thao Truong – $20,837

Season 1 of the 2012-2013 Card Player Poker Tour came to an end with the CPPT Choctaw tournament series, a 54-event series which included no-limit hold’em and H.O.R.S.E. events, a seniors event and the very first ever Choctaw Hold’em event, a tournament in which players are dealt three hole cards, must turn one up post flop and can combine their hole cards with the five cards on the board to make the best five-card hand.

“It was the first time that game has even been dealt,” Jeramey Standridge, Choctaw Table Games Manager said. “People liked it. We got over 100 players.”

Many of the preliminary tournaments doubled or tripled their guarantees, pleasing players and tournament staff alike. Six-time WSOP bracelet winner T.J. Cloutier added another win to his long resume when he took down event no. 4, a $120 no-limit hold’em $100,000 Guarantee for $49,615, bringing his lifetime winnings to just over $9.8 million.

Other winners of the preliminary events included Bill Donnelly, who won the $440 no-limit hold’em $150,000 Guarantee for $33,737. Donnelly then went on to make the final table of the main event. Steven Gordon took down the $550 no-limit hold’em $200,000 Guarantee for $55,662. Both Donnelly and Gordon earned Card Player POY points for their wins. Stephen Brown won the kickoff event, the $340 no-limit hold’em $50,000 Guarantee and Buell Jones bested the field in the final event of the series, the $120 no-limit hold’em $5,000 Guarantee.

The Choctaw Resort Casino in Durant, Okla. is home to over 4,000 slot machines, spreads a wide variety of table games and features its own exclusive poker room, considered one of the best in the region. The poker room sits on its own floor with 30 tables and private staff and services. The Choctaw Grand Tower is home to 330 AAA Four Diamond rooms and offers and additional 160 rooms at the Choctaw Inn and Lodge located nearby.

For results and more information about the CPPT, visit the series landing page.