November Niner Gordon Vayo Wins 2016 WinStar River Poker Series Main Event

There aren’t many better ways to prepare to play for the World Series of Poker main event title than by making another major tournament final table. That is precisely what 2016 November Niner Gordon Vayo did when he took the chip lead into the final day of the 2016 The River Poker Series $2,500 buy-in, $2.5 million guaranteed main event at the WinStar Casino in Oklahoma.

A total of 1,054 entries were made in the event, but in the end Vayo struck a five-way deal that saw him secure the title and a payout of $587,120. Vayo was also awarded 1,440 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. This was his first final table score of the year, outside of making the WSOP world championship final table. He will return to play out that event this fall, entering the final table in third chip position. As a result of winning this event he now sits in 126th place in the standings.

If Vayo were to win the main event he would be awarded 3,300 points, which currently would be enough to put him into third place in the rankings.

The final five’s decision to make a deal was likely influenced by the fact that the event featured a $1 million guaranteed top prize. The difference between first and second place was to be larger than $700,000 if the players stuck to the official payouts. Vayo held a commanding lead with over half of the chips in play when the deal was struck and ultimately was awarded more than 20 percent of the total prize pool based on the ICM numbers the final five agreed upon.

Joining Vayo at the final table of this event were Danny Fuhs (9th – $32,623), Chino Rheem (7th – $54,288), Grant Hinkle (5th – $207,669) and Layne Flack (4th – $225,190).

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded in this event:

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