Geoffrey Hum Tops Stacked Final Table At World Poker Tour Montreal Main EventHalifax Native Wins CAD$500,000 ($380,648) After Topping Field Of 1,109 Players |
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After five days of action in the CAD$3,300 buy-in, World Poker Tour Montreal main event at the Playground Poker Club, just ten hopefuls out of the starting field of 1,109 remained to battle it out for the CAD$500,000 first-place prize.
Among them were some of the best in the game today, including high-stakes regular Michael Watson, World Series of Poker bracelet winners Mike Leah and Joseph Cheong, two-time last woman standing in the WSOP main event Kelly Minkin, no. 4 on the women’s all-time money list Kristen Bicknell, and 2014 WSOP main event champion Martin Jacobson.
But despite all of that star power at the final table, the title ultimately went to Halifax, Nova Scotia’s Geoffrey Hum, who entered the tournament with just over $50,000 in lifetime earnings.
Hum, who works a day job in Toronto, added $380,648 to his bankroll for the win, incuding a $15,000 entry into the Tournament of Champions in Las Vegas.
“I’m not a pro by any means, so to come here for a few days and to have this result is obviously not expected, but it’s pretty sweet,” the 30-year-old part-time player admitted to WPT reporters. "You look at some of these big names that won WPTs, and I’m not nearly as good as them. I totally understand that you have to run hot for four days to win a tournament like this, and I’m happy my run good came here.
Hum avoided confrontation for most of the final table until play got five-handed and Bicknell ran her pocket kings into his pocket aces. That pot put him near the chip lead with four players left, and he took it over after Watson’s A-Q offsuit fell to his pocket queens. He retained his lead entering heads-up play after his pocket eights out-flopped Cheong’s pocket jacks.
Hum’s heads-up opponent Adedapo Ajayi was relatively unknown compared to most of the final table, but he has been drawing some attention in 2019 after a series of big scores. He opened the year with a runner-up showing in the WSOP Circuit main event at Choctaw for $198,265 and then followed that up with a win at the Wynn Classic. This summer, he finished 39th in the WSOP main event for $211,945, and his second-place result in Montreal was worth another $255,034.
Although Ajayi tried his best to secure the win, after just eight hands of heads-up play, he found himself in a terrible spot. Both players saw a flop of K 6 4, and Ajayi committed the rest of his stack with J 9 for a flush draw. Unfortunately for him, Hum held K 7 for top pair and a bigger flush draw. Another heart on the turn sealed the deal, and Hum came away with the title.
Other notables who made the money included Marc-Etienne McLaughlin (13th), Curt Kohlberg (20th), Jonathan Roy (21st), James Romero (24th), Jerry Wong (33rd), Kitty Kuo (35th), Christian Harder (36th), Jack Salter (37th), Ari Engel (44th), Matt Salsberg (60th), Toby Lewis (65th), Mukul Pahuja (79th), Manig Loeser (94th), Jeff Gross (102nd), Ema Zajmovic (104th), Mike Sowers (120th), and Mike Sexton (138th).
Here are the final table results.
Place | Player | Payout | POY Points |
1 | Geoffrey Hum | $380,648 | 1440 |
2 | Adedapo Ajayi | $255,034 | 1200 |
3 | Joseph Cheong | $179,126 | 960 |
4 | Michael Watson | $137,034 | 720 |
5 | Kristen Bicknell | $106,582 | 600 |
6 | Martin Jacobson | $83,743 | 480 |
7 | Kelly Minkin | $64,711 | 360 |
8 | Michael Robar | $51,007 | 240 |
9 | Mike Leah | $40,349 | 120 |
*Photo courtesy of the WPT.