Roger Teska Wins 2019 World Poker Tour Gardens Poker Festival Main Event

Roger Teska has won the 2019 World Poker Tour Gardens Poker Festival $5,000 no-limit hold’em main event. The 34-year-old from Bloomington, Indiana outlasted a field of 373 total entries in the event to win his first WPT title, the top prize of $368,475 and a new 2019 BMW X1.

This was the third-largest score of Teska’s career, behind his fourth-place showing in the 2011 WPT Championship for $371,665 and his win in the 2018 Caribbean Poker Party MILLIONS World $25,000 buy-in high roller for $2,000,000. Teska now has career live tournament earnings of $3,284,077.

In addition to the title and the money, Teska also took home 1,200 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. This was his first final-table finish of the year, but it alone was enough to see him move just outside of the top 200 in the 2019 POY race, which is sponsored by Global Poker.

Teska entered the six-handed final table of this event in second chip position behind Lior Orel. The first player to be eliminated was World Series of Poker bracelet winner Cord Garcia. The champion of the first-ever ‘Colossus’ event got all-in on a Q1076 board with Q10 for top two pair, only to find out that Lars Kamphues had flopped top set with the QQ. Garcia was drawing dead and hit the rail in sixth place ($73,600).

Kamphues flopped another huge hand that resulted to an elimination not long after that. He picked up 44 and raised from the cutoff. Card Player Poker Tour Bicycle Casino main event champion Andrew Wisdom three-bet with the AQ and Kamphues called to see a flop of 554. Wisdom check-called a bet of 450,000 from Kamphues, who had flopped a full house. Wisdom paired his ace on the A turn and check-called again, this time to the tune of 380,000. The 9 completed the board and Kamphues moved all-in once Wisdom checked to him for a third time. Wisdom made the call and saw the bad news. He took home $96,545 for his fifth-place finish.

During four-handed play Teska and Kamphues clashed in a key preflop showdown, with Teska getting all-in holding 88 up against the AK of Kamphues. Teska won the race to double up, taking a chunk out of Kamphues’ stack in the process. Kamphues lost another race not long after, with his pocket jacks failing to hold against Teska’s AQ[[suit:heart]. Just like that, he was knocked out in fourth place ($128,320).

Pocket jacks fared no better for Lior Orel. He got his last chips in with JJ, only to find that Laszlo Molnar had been dealt KK. Molnar ended up making kings full to send Orel home with $172,770 as the third-place finisher.

Molnar took a sizable lead into the final showdown against Teska. He was a favorite to win it all on the first hand of heads-up action, as all the chips got in with Molnar holding a dominating AQ against Teska’s QJ. Teska hit a broadway straight on the turn to double up, though, cutting Molnar’s lead to less than a 2-to-1 advantage.

The two ended up battling for 41 hands. By the time the final cards were dealt it was Teska who held a massive lead. Molnar got his last chips in with KQ and Teska called with A6. The board ran out J9432 and Teska’s ace high was good enough to earn him the pot and the title. Molnar took home $235,615 as the runner-up finisher.

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

Winner photo credit: Joe Giron / WPT.

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