Cord Garcia Wins World Series of Poker Colossus Event For $638,880

The $5 million guaranteed $565 buy-in 2015 World Series of Poker ‘Colossus’ no-limit hold’em event drew the largest field in live tournament history. An incredible total of 22,374 entries were made in the re-entry event, blowing away the guarantee to build a $11,187,000 prize pool. There were 14,284 unique players in this historic event, including 5,664 first time WSOP players. From that giant see of hopefuls only one could emerge with the bracelet and the $638,880 first-place prize, and that player was Cord Garcia.

For the win the 25-year-old poker pro from Houston, TX earned $638,880 and his first WSOP gold bracelet. His most notable win prior to this came in a $365 buy-in WSOP Circuit Bossier City event, earning him a circuit ring.

“It feels like it is my breakthrough,” said Garcia after the win. “But at the same time, I feel like I am capable of doing bigger things.”

Garcia came into the final table as one of the shortest stacks, joined by fellow Texan Ray Henson, who won the largest ever WSOP Circuit event earlier this year. The final table featured a few other experienced pros in Belgium’s Kenny Hallaert and Florida’s David Farber. The player with the most chips going into nine handed play was Aditya Prasetyo, who held roughly 30 percent of the chips in play. Brad McFarland was the second largest stack as the final table began.

But the short stacks fought back to the detriment of Prasetyo, who eventually hit the rail in sixth place. Henson fought his way back from 6 big blinds to finish third, taking home $308,761. With his elimination it came down to a showdown between Garcia and McFarland. The two began on fairly even stacks, but the battle still only lasted 18 hands before the ultimate showdown arose.

When the final hand arose Garcia was playing 57 million to McFarland’s 55 million in chips with blinds at 500,000 – 1,000,000 with an ante of 150,000 (to put that in context, players began with 5,000 so the ante each hand cost 30 starting stacks). Garcia raised to 3 million from the button and McFarland made the call. The flop brought the Q42 and McFarland check-called a 4.1 million bet from Garcia.

The turn brought the 2 and McFarland again check-called a bet, this time for 8.4 million. The 7 rolled off on the river and for a third straight time McFarland checked. Garcia reached deep into his stack to fire out a bet of 17.5 million, only to have McFarland move all-in over the top.

Garcia snap called with the 44 for a full house while McFarland could only produce the A8 for a bluff. With that Garcia secure the pot and the title, while McFarland hit the rail as the runner-up with $386,253 for his impressive showing.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at this final table:

For more coverage from the summer series, visit the 2015 WSOP landing page complete with a full schedule, news, player interviews and event recaps.

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