Isaac Haxton Wins 2018 Poker Masters $10,000 Short Deck No-Limit Hold'em Event

Isaac Haxton is the latest champion at the 2018 Poker Masters. The 32-year-old American poker pro outlasted a field of 55 entries to take down the fourth event of the series, a $10,000 buy-in short deck no-limit hold’em event. For the win Haxton earned $176,000 and moved into second place in the race for the purple jacket awarded to the player of the series at the Poker Masters. This was Haxton’s third final table finish in four events, having placed sixth in the kickoff $10,500 no-limit hold’em event and fourth in the $26,000 pot-limit Omaha tournament. He now sits just 30 ranking points behind current leader Brandon Adams.

“It would be very satisfying to win this whole thing, I have a track record of doing pretty well, but with a lot of second through fifth-place finishes. Actually winning something is very satisfying,” said Haxton after coming out on top.

With this latest win, Haxton’s lifetime live tournament earnings have exceeded $19.3 million. He currently occupies the 19th-place spot on the all-time money list. This was Haxton’s 16th final table and first title of the year. He earned 300 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win and now sits in 15th place in the overall 2018 POY race standings.

This was the first short deck tournament ever broadcast on PokerGO. The new format is quickly growing in popularity in high-stakes cash games around the world, having first caught fire in Asia. The game is played with a 36-card deck, with the deuces through fives removed and a couple of resulting rule changes. Flushes beat full houses, and aces can play both as the highest card and as a five in order to complete a nine-high straight, A-6-7-8-9.

The final day began with Dominik Nitsche leading the final six remaining players. The German lost a few big all-ins early at the final table and ultimately was the first to be eliminated, taking home $33,000 as the sixth-place finisher after his pocket jacks failed to hold up against Haxton’s pocket tens. Haxton scored another knockout not long after, sending Cary Katz to the rail in fifth place ($44,000.)

Haxton took the lead into four-handed play but lost some momentum when he doubled up a few of the shorter stacks. World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker event winner Ryan Tosoc was one of the players who was surging midway through the day, and he continued to grow his stack by busting Andrew Robl in fourth place ($55,000).

Haxton climbed back up the leaderboard by winning an all-in preflop race with the QQ against Tosoc’s AK. Haxton finished Tosoc off not long after, knocking him out in third place ($77,000.)

With that Haxton set up a heads-up showdown with Maurice Hawkins, an 11-time WSOP Circuit ring winner. The two traded the lead back and forth several times before Haxton took control heading into what would be the final hand. Hawkins ended up getting his last 4,775,000 in with the 97 and Haxton called with the AQ. The board ran out A88KQ and Haxton secured the pot and the title. Hawkins earned $115,500 as the runner-up finisher.

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

Here is a look at the standings in the race for the Poker Masters purple jacket:

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