Matthew Welch Wins 2019 Card Player Poker Tour Ocean's 11 San Diego Classic

A total of 823 entries were made in the January running of the 2019 Card Player Poker Tour Ocean’s 11 San Diego Classic $250 buy-in no-limit hold’em event, easily surpassing the estimated $150,000 to create a final prize pool of $226,155. The event featured six starting flights from Jan. 24-26, which collectively drew 756 entries. Another 67 entries were made by players who opted to take advantage of the Quantum Tournament structure, buying directly into day 2 for $1,500.

In the end, San Diego resident Matthew Welch emerged victorious, capturing the first big title of his career, in addition to the $41,300 top prize.

From the 823 total entries, only the top 112 finishers made the money in this event. A number of big names cashed, including Mike Eskandari (14th – $2,690), former champion of this event Barry Seidman (19th – $1,845), Bubby Suer (41st – $765), another previous winner of this tournament in Shawn Busse (46th – $685) and 2015 World Poker Tour Legends of Poker main event winner Mike Shariati (78th – $520).

Welch was the overall chip leader from the six starting flights, having bagged up a massive stack of 523,700 in flight 1B. The next largest stack was the 342,500 of Luis Pedro.

Welch was able to take his huge stack and navigate his way to the final table. In the end, he defeated Mateus Lessa heads-up to secure the victory. Lessa earned $26,510 as the runner-up finisher, the largest score of his live tournament career.

Here is a look at the payouts awarded to the final-table finishers:

A full list of payouts can be found here.

This was the eighth CPPT event held at the legendary Ocean’s 11 Casino. In April of 2016, Robert DeAgazio took home $23,813 for topping a field of 778 entries. In January of 2017, Barry Knowlton pocketed $17,157 after he overcame a field of 582. In April of 2017 Shawn Busse outlasted a massive field of 920 total entries to win $48,910. Barry Seidman topped 910 entries in July of 2017 to win $38,873. Scott ‘Brian’ Blount earned $37,010 after defeating a field of 691 entries in January of 2018. David McCaw outlasted 949 entries to win $29,649 in April of 2018. Most recently, Seth Brown overcame a turnout of 938 entries to win $46,870.

Ocean’s 11 is the only casino in Southern California located along the Pacific Ocean on the Interstate 5 freeway, less than a mile from some of the area’s most picturesque beaches. It boasts 50 tables of the best poker and table games found anywhere in California with all the favorite poker games, including no-limit and limit Texas hold’em, Omaha, Omaha hi-lo split eight-or-better, pot-limit Omaha, and crazy pineapple.

For more information on the Card Player Poker Tour, click here.

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