Ronnie Pease Wins Card Player Poker Tour Foxwoods Main Event

It was only fitting that Ronnie Pease became the latest edition to the Card Player Poker Tour list of champions. When Day 1A of the CPPT Foxwoods $1,650 No-Limit Hold’em $300,000 Guarantee Main Event wrapped up, Pease bagged the chiplead over the remaining 22 players. When Day 2 came to a close, Pease once again had the chiplead over the final 13 players.

After about 13 and a half hours of play the final hand was dealt and it was the J9 held by Pease which bested 2012 World Series of Poker bracelet winner Chris Tryba’s Ace-five off-suite as the board ran out KQ7Q9.

“Chris is a friend. It was weird playing heads-up with a friend but it was fun,” Pease said. “He is a really good player and it’s cool to get heads-up with a friend. It was a long battle but I’m happy.”

In what turned out to be a heads-up match lasting about four hours, Pease and Tryba ultimately decided on a fifty-fifty chop for $91,347. Around 11:15 pm, after more than 11 hours of play, the two decided on a deal in which each player was guaranteed $85,000 and they would play for the remaining $12,693. Around 1:00 a.m. the deal was re-calculated to an even chop with only the trophy on the line.

When heads-up play began Tryba had a nearly 7-to-1 chiplead over Pease, but the young pro grinded his way back to make the two nearly even when the first deal was made.

“I had pretty much wire to wire chiplead but the low points were pretty low,” Pease said. “It was different to have to change gears, but at the same time, when you play tournaments and play poker for a living you have to be able to switch it up. You can’t always be gas pedal when you lose that chip lead. You have to change your strategy.”

Pease also earned 480 Card Player Player of the Year points in addition to the money and the trophy.

Aside from the epic heads-up battle win, two other notable stories came out of the main event final table. Mike Jarvela began the final day with the shortest stack in play with just 132,000 in chips. Jarvela played patient and smart and managed to grind his way to a third place finish, good for $45,760 despite being the short stack most of the day as play progressed along.

Fourth place finisher Frank Paul was also a great one to watch. Paul won his seat in the main event in a $200 satellite and said he was pretty nervous going into the final day. The truck driver from New Hampshire has been playing poker for about 10 years, but only on a recreational level. In what he said was his biggest tournament ever, Paul cashed out for a nice $36,360.

With the elimination of Tom Thomas as the 11th place finisher the remaining 10 players were moved to the unofficial final table. But before an official final table could even get going, players were eight handed. On just the second hand of 10-handed play Justin Adams open-shoved for 367,000 and action folded around to 2011 World Poker Tour bestbet Jacksonville main event champion Tony Ruberto who went all –in over the top for about 600,000 from the cutoff. Tryba had both players covered and went all-in from the button.

A three-way all-in was a dynamic start to the unofficial final table and the outcome was even more so. Tryba table KK and was ahead of Adams’ AK and Ruberto’s AQ. Tryba’s Kings held on a board of 53369 to eliminate both Adams and Ruberto and chip up to about 1.8 million. From Tryba’s stack steadily grew throughout the day.

Joshua Albin finished eighth ($14,099) followed by Brad St. Vincent in seventh ($17,809), Mark Lierberman was sixth ($21,767) and Ben Bianco cashed out as the fifth place finisher ($26,714).

The CPPT’s inaugural stop at Foxwoods was a smashing success on all fronts despite the winter storms blanketing the area at the time. The 11-tournament series guaranteed $700,000 in prize pool money and although Event 8: $300 No-Limit Hold’em $75,000 Guarantee was canceled due to a snow storm, the series still shattered the guarantees. In total the prize pools brought in upwards of $1,347,000.

Other big winners during the series included Chris Leong, who cashed his way into the CPPT leaderboard by winning Event 1: $600 No-Limit Hold’em $100,000 Guarantee for $42,149, cashing out for 52nd and $602 in Event 4: $300 No-Limit Hold’em $75,000 Guarantee and taking third in Event 7: $400 No-Limit Hold’em $75,000 Guarantee for $11,763.

Leong did not cash in the main event but did not seem upset by it, Tweeting “Busted…. guess it was ridic to think I could cash in first 4 tourneys of the year lol.”

Chris Schonbach also earned his spot on the CPPT leaderboard. Schonbach chopped with Leong for first in Event 1 and finished 12th in the main event for $7,917, brining his total to $50,964 won on the season.

Up next the CPPT will head to Atlantis Casino Resort Spa in Reno, Nevada March 21-30.

Final Table Results

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